An Innocent in Russia

Now that her beloved father has passed away and the family estate has been sold off to provide for her future, the beautiful young Zelina Tiverton is somewhat bewildered to find herself living amid the glamour of London's Social world with her Guardian, her glamorous Aunt Kathleen, who is the husband of the Earl of Rothbury. Now her aunt has a greater shock in store for her, announcing that she is sending Zelina to Russia to stay as Governess with Prince and Princess Volkonsky in their superb Palace to teach their children English. Clearly Aunt Kathleen simply wants Zelina off her hands as she is so pretty and so reluctantly she finds herself alone and unchaperoned aboard a Steamer bound for Stockholm en route to St. Petersburg. On board she meets the seemingly imperial Lord Charnock, one of the most handsome and overwhelming men she had ever seen, but also one of the most aloof. Unknown to Zelina, Lord Charnock is headed for St. Petersburg on an urgent and secret Diplomatic mission for the British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. And so Zelina, the innocent abroad, finds herself unexpectedly in a menacing and threatening world of Secret Police, spies, sinister intrigue and predatory Russian aristocrats with only the dashing Lord Charnock to protect her in an unknown and uncaring land.

Dame Barbara Cartland was one of the most successful and well-known of all British romance novelists and was undoubtedly the most prolific, writing 723 books in her long lifetime of which 675 are romantic novels and include 160 brand new titles that are currently being published as the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection. She wrote across a wide variety of genres, but is of course most closely associated with romance, and with her stories of chaste heroines, dashing heroes and everyone finally living happily ever after. Barbara was a colorful character in many senses of the word and was as well known for her controversial and witty interviews and absorbingly exciting life story as she was for her bright pink clothes and extravagant appearance. To read Barbara Cartland's life story is to be impressed that someone could fit so much into only one life. As well as writing a staggering number of books, she was also involved with great advances in many diverse fields from aviation to alternative medicine and helped many groups who she perceived as being unfairly treated, from midwives in poor working conditions to Romany gypsy children who wanted to be allowed to attend school. She was fascinatingly contradictory in her interviews and novels, Barbara often extolled the virtues of traditional relationships between men and women and falling in love, but hers is the story of a driven, independent-minded woman who was unafraid to turn her hand to anything which interested her and right wrongs Barbara Cartland is synonymous with traditional romantic fiction, but her life story is perhaps just as engrossing as her fiction. To date she has sold 1 Billion copies sold in 38 languages