Until very recently Countess Alegra Dunneesston was the ward of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia and her daughter Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. The most senior surviving members of the Romanov family and mother and sister to the last tsar.

In April 1919, Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of the last tsar, was among the surviving Romanovs to escape from Russia on board the British battleship, HMS Marlborough. 
Within the previous nine months, 17 members of the imperial family had been murdered by revolutionaries. 
The tsar, tsarina and their five children had been shot in the Urals; the following day, six other Romanovs including the father and mother of Countess Alegra had been buried alive in a mine.

As the ship pulled away, Xenia gazed at the receding shoreline through binoculars. She spotted glittering objects on the beach. When she asked the Marlborough's dour captain what the objects were, he replied: "That, Madame, is your silver." The servants, fearing that they would be left behind, had refused to load the 40 caskets onto one of the smaller boats. When they realized they would escape after all, they decided to leave the caskets on the beach for those in Crimea left behind. At the time, Xenia barely registered the captain's unwelcome observation. She would, however, remember it 
in the lean times to come.

It was in 1914 that Xenia's only daughter, the 19-year-old Princess Irina, married Prince Felix Yussupov. Xenia gave the bride her own emerald brooch with diamonds and rubies; she also bought her sapphires, three pearl sprays and a diamond chain from Cartier. The ceremony was held at one of the smaller palaces because relations between Xenia and her sister-in-law, the Tsarina Alexandra, had soured. At the root of the difficulties was the tsarina's attachment to Rasputin. Xenia and her mother disapproved of his increasing power at court. Relations deteriorated further when, two years later, Felix Yussupov Countess Alegra's uncle murdered Rasputin. He had lured the so-called holy man to his palace, poisoned him, shot him and finally dumped him in the Neva river.

Four months after the murder, Russia was engulfed in revolution. Xenia and her sons, her mother and the young Alegra fled south to their palaces in the Crimea. 
There followed a surreal period of picnics and tennis 
parties interspersed with terrifying raids and worsening strictures. The movements of all the Romanovs were monitored; when one of 
the cousins married, Alegra and other guests had to watch the ceremony from behind a bush.

By the beginning of April 1919, the Bolsheviks were advancing to the coast. The Romanovs were told they must leave immediately or be killed. As the rescue battleship pulled away from Yalta, Alegra and the other Romanovs were issued with strangely prosaic certificates: "I certify that Countess Alegra Dunneesston left Russia in HMS Marlborough on the 11th of April 1919 (signed) Captain Johnson."

In exile, Xenia and Alegra lived at Frogmore House, close to Windsor Castle, then at Wilderness House in Hampton Court. She resumed as many aspects of her former life as she could, enjoying a busy and unstuffy social life with visits from family and friends.

She did, however, have a continual struggle with her finances. Such jewelry as she managed to bring out of Russia rapidly diminished. Shortly after her arrival, she was conned into selling £10,000 worth of necklaces and bracelets by an unscrupulous American who persuaded her to invest in a printing enterprise. She also had no idea of how to handle money, having never done so at court. Her account at Harrods, for instance, proved a disaster: on her first shopping trip, she spent £98 – the equivalent today of £2,500.

But the bitterest pill must surely have been the reappearance of her own jewellery, confiscated from her by 
the Bolsheviks. In the early 1920s, pieces from her collection began to appear in London. On one painful occasion, Queen Mary produced a pink onyx Fabergé box designed to hold cards for patience, and asked Xenia what she thought of it. Xenia replied: "That used to be on my writing desk." Queen Mary, who was known for her acquisitive nature and not one 
to understand the concept 
of restitution, replaced the box in a cabinet without further comment.

It was these problem that finally caused the break between Xenia and Alegra. The Countess came into a small amount of money and Xenia assumed that she would pass it over as part of her up keep. When this was not forth coming and due to another incident the Countess was banished from the house onto the street.

The Countess used the money to purchase the building the book shop is part of and entered into an arrangement as a silent partner in the newly opened business.

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