Black Russian

The extraordinary story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, the son of former slaves who fled America to build a life in Tsarist Russia.'A fascinating tale' Anne Applebaum'Thoroughly enjoyable' Spectator'Extraordinary and gripping' Adam HochschildAfter the brutal death of his father when he was a teenager, Frederick Thomas fled the stifling racism of the American South and headed for New York City, where he worked as a valet and trained as a singer. Through charisma and cunning, Thomas emigrated to Europe, where his acquired skills as a multilingual maitre d'hotel allowed him to travel from London to Monte Carlo before settling in Moscow in the glorious days before the 1917 Revolution. There Thomas became a rich and respected nightclub impresario, opening a lavish nightclub called Maxim.With evocative backdrops in Moscow and later in Odessa and Constantinople, where Thomas rebuilt his life after the revolution, The Black Russian is an inspiring story of personal reinvention set in one of history's richest periods.

Product details

• Authors: Vladimir Alexandrov, Alexandrov Vladimir
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 29.06.2023
• EAN: 9781804549865
• ISBN: 978-1-80454-986-5
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 200 mm x 30 mm
• Series: Great Lives
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book; Russia, Biography: historical, political & military, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Entertainment & Performing Arts, Social & cultural history, Biography: arts & entertainment, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Non Fiction