Wednesday 30 May 2012

Fabergé and Anastasia

It would have been Peter Carl Fabergé's 166th Birthday today and I learned so much about him and his beautiful Fabergé Eggs while writing Series II of the Anastasia books, starting with Anastasia and the Imperial Egg Hunt.  Each Fabergé Egg was individually crafted for the Imperial Russian Tsar to give as a gift to his wife.  The tradition began with Tsar Alexander III and continued with his son Tsar Nicholas II.  Peter Carl Fabergé created the most unique, elaborate, jewel encrusted gold Eggs that each held a surprise.  The surprise was usually a gold object or objects and were equally as intricate as the Eggs that contained them.

Eight of the Imperial Fabergé Eggs are still missing, however Anastasia may have found them in Series II.  You would need to read the books to find out where they were all hidden and if she solved the mystery!

The first time I heard of Fabergé was from a Danielle Steele book, believe it or not.  Within her romantic stories was often reference to historical events and facts, including Fabergé Eggs, Titanic and the Vietnam War, among other things.  As a young teenager I remember thinking how wonderful it would be to own a Fabergé Egg and, as I have been learning, the dream may easily become reality if I could only find one of the real, missing, eight Imperial Fabergé Eggs!  Not only would I be very happy I would also be a very wealthy lady!

Writing these books has been a joy because of all the things my research is teaching me.  I was never a history fan at school, in fact I only ever got positive feedback from my teacher for my drawings of King Henry VIII's wives!  But I can see now why people get excited and interested in things from the past.  As history now has some relevance to me I am beginning to find it more and more fascinating.

Happy 166th Birthday Peter Carl Fabergé and thank you for helping make history very interesting for me!






4 comments:

  1. OK, now I'm curious - if you weren't that interested in history before writing the Anastasia books, how did you come to write books that take place in the past?

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    1. I had to go where the character was and Anastasia has been leading the way! I am very pleased she introduced me to history. I have learnt so much. I guess I always had an interest however at school I found it dull because of the lack of relevance or maybe lack of excitement from the teacher. I do feel like I missed out at school on the bits of history that do excite me more.

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