European history, she worked for many years as a newspaper reporter and later magazine editor. The mother of two grown children, she currently lives with her husband in London and in Amagansett, New York.
McHugh applied the Page 69 Test to The Romanov Brides and reported the following:
On page 69 of my book, one of the two main protagonists, Ella, princess of Hesse, is visiting her grandmother, Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle in spring 1883. Ella is contemplating becoming the wife of Grand Duke Serge, of the Russian Romanov family. Her grandmother fiercely opposes this match. Ella’s uncle Leo, who has recently defied the Queen’s objections to marry himself, is sitting down to chat with Ella about her future.Visit Clare McHugh's website.
On page 69, readers will be immediately immersed in the atmosphere of my novel, and presented with the stakes of the narrative. The central question is this: Should members of Queen Victoria’s family—including the two young princesses of Hesse, Ella and Alix—follow the monarch’s sometimes capricious direction as to who they should, or should not, marry? Uncle Leo is about to line himself up on one side of this question. Also, on this page, a central reality of these princess’ lives—a reality they are ironically unaware of—is mentioned. Uncle Leo, it is revealed here, suffers from bouts of uncontrolled bleeding. Readers will recognize that this in the hereditary disease hemophilia, which Alix of Hesse will bring into the Romanov line, with tragic consequences.
I love how, on page 69, we are awaiting Uncle Leo’s input on the most important decision of young Ella’s life, should she marry Grand Duke Serge or not? On this choice so much of history turns, as the novel will reveal. I wrote the book as a kind of prequel. We all know how Nicholas and Alexandra’s story ended: assassinated in a basement in Yekaterinburg. How did it begin? With Ella—and the fateful choice that a young woman had to make with very little understanding of the world.
--Marshal Zeringue
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