In 1907 Princess Sophy (' Sofka') Dolgorouky was born in St Petersburg. Members of the Imperial family had attended her parents' wedding earlier that same year & the child was born into a privileged world of nurses private tutors & elegant tea parties. The Russian Revolution caused the princess to flee across Europe to England but it was the Second World War that left the deepest marks on her adult life. During those years she left her first husband & lost her second. Later she was interned in a Nazi prison camp where she discovered Communism & showed great bravery in defending the rights of the Jewish prisoners. It was her Communism which took her back to the Soviet Union as an improbable tour guide for British workers. & Communism albeit indirectly brought her the last love of her life Jack a working-class Londoner who had never been abroad. Sofka's colourful life also included a close friendship with Laurence Olivier innumerable lovers some serious some quickly discarded & an abiding love of reading & especially poetry. This affectionate portrait of the 'red princess' by her granddaughter & namesake uses letters diaries & interviews to recreate a vanished world & also explore the author's own Russian roots.