Catherine the Great by Ian Grey is a loose kind of biography about the infamous ruler of Russia Catherine 2nd.
I say loose biography because most historical books relating to historical figures usually state at the back of the book where the sources came from, like museums, palaces, or even from other historian’s who managed to see certain texts that the author couldn’t see.
The book was easy reading though, it’s not too dense, it’s not overly heavy in information but it does lack something. And I am going to say that it was passion.
I don’t feel like the author cared that much about Catherine’s life, they just wanted to drama that surrounded her instead. They focused heavily in regards to her mother bringing her to the Russian court and how she was a spy for Prussia, but we never learn that much about who her mother was as a person, or even that much about her father, did she have any siblings? Chances are she did, but none of that was mentioned here. Because of that, I do feel like the author just wanted to write about her because she is so well known, a book about Catherine the Great of Russia is likely to sell as well around the globe as a book about the Tudors would.
Am I being a bit too harsh over the fact that there was no references cited at the end of the book? I kind of feel like it’s something to expect from a book about a historical figure?
Regardless of that however, it’s a decent read, it doesn’t have a ton of information for you to fact check, or even for you to go and look at, but it is a starting point if you wanted a bit more information about this woman who ruled Russia. Just don’t believe everything you read here, until you see a lot more historian’s writing about it too in their books.
The Pen and the Book 