Book excerpt: The mother of the last czar, Maria Feodorovna was born Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She spent 50 turbulent years in Russia and became empress, but as the country fell into civil war she boarded a British battleship and sailed to Britain, the most senior member of the Romanov dynasty to survive. This study of her dramatic life makes use of previously unpublished material from the Royal Archives as well as information in Russian, Danish, and Finnish. Originally published in the UK in 1999. c. Book News Inc.