The twentieth century has borne witness to a spate of exiled royal families, and a brace of strange tales to match. Only recently has it been demonstrated to satisfaction that the imperial family of the Romanovs was entirely extinguished in the Russian Revolution. As for the Saxe-Coburg line of Bulgarian kings, the exiled infant Simeon II would return many years later to win election as prime minister of the republic that had once overthrown him.

And what of Marania, that charmed but impoverished island nation lying in the distant ocean blue of the imagination, yet within reasonable flying distance of London Heathrow? Inexorable forces are at work. Some former royals chafe at their exile, while others have become more than resigned to it. All are swept up in an improbable train of unfolding events.