Ali's only mistake
Sir: Mea culpa, though perhaps not, I should add, Culpa MAXIMA. For besides an impressive number of witnesses of all classes besides many of her Romanov rela- tions, my lifelong friend and contemporary, the late Grand Duke Vladimir (now interred at Yeltsin's orders in St Peters- burg, with due honour), before his death, admitted to me his reluctant acceptance of the longstanding claim of the late 'Anna Anderson' to have, in fact, been that most engaging and mischievous of all, the last Tsar, Nicholas II. I fear that over the years I `warmed to my topic' and consequently misled Spectator readers, to whom I now extend my most sincere apologies.
No doubt not a few will chortle to see so much Faberge egg on my face.
Alastair Forbes
1837 Chateau-d'Oex, Switzerland
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