Russia and Britain were never natural bedfellows. But the marriage, in 1894, of Queen Victoria's favourite granddaughter, Alicky, to the Tsarevich Nicholas marked the beginning of an uneasy Anglo-Russian entente that would last until the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Imperial Tea Party draws back the curtain on the three extraordinary meetings that took place between the British and Russian royal families during those years. These pivotal encounters, although well-intentioned and generally hailed as successes, were beset by misunderstandings and misfortunes. In this wonderfully droll account, Frances Welch presents a vivid snapshot of two dynasties at a time of social unrest. The two families could not know, as they waved each other fond goodbyes from their yachts at Cowes in 1909, that they would never meet again.