Red Prince, The The Fall of a Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Euro

1. The first ever biography of the extraordinarily colourful Archduke Wilhelm von Habsburg (1895-1947). Tattooed, bisexual, crossdressing, multilingual, he was a major - & symbolic - figure in 20th-century European culture & politics. . Born into one of the great European dynasties with every expectation of a glittering future, instead he became a playboy in Paris during the 1930s & died a spy for Britain - under interrogation in a Soviet prison. . The arc of Wilhelm s life therefore describes the dying fall of the ancien regime the Europe of his birth bears very little resemblance to that of his death . Operating largely in inter-war Europe, Wilhelm is like a Le Carre character a prisoner of private impulses that drove him to a doomed secret war. 5. To the history of the Second World War the book adds a detailed discussion of Hitler s confrontation with a particular object of his loathing the Habsburg family. 6. A major subject of the book is Soviet communism and it s effect on the individual; cf Vassily Grossman s Life & Fate & A Writer at War. 7. This is a book of exceptional brilliance and originality it cites documents from 20 archives & in 12 languages; eac