Royal Edge began as stories shared during countryside walks, where a father's footsteps matched those of his young daughters as they explored nature together. During these moments, author Michael Pepper would tell his children about an extraordinary woman who had touched his life deeply – Ella, a Russian countess whose wisdom and warmth shaped his understanding of history, identity, and the art of truly living.
These walks became the fertile ground where memories blossomed into what would become the book, Royal Edge, a poignant exploration of friendship, survival, and resilience—a bond that transcends generations. Set against the backdrop of life's beauty and challenges, Michael shares his memories of Ella, whose story exemplifies choosing courage over circumstance and embracing art, poetry, and love despite life's hardships.
In this Q&A, Michael reflects on how these walks with his daughters helped him rediscover and shape these precious memories into a narrative, exploring the healing power of storytelling and the timeless lessons he learned from Ella. As Michael revisits their shared moments, readers are invited to celebrate a life well-lived and carry forward the enduring message: to live fully, despite it all.
"Royal Edge" explores a unique and touching friendship. What inspired you to share this story now, over 50 years later?
The storytelling began while I was on long hikes with my then three young daughters. The hikes took place in the countrysides of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Holland. We would typically embark on full-week hikes, inn to inn, through incredibly beautiful countrysides, charming towns, and dramatic coastal trails. Their mother was ill much of the time with addiction and bipolar disorder. We all needed an escape of sorts, and these beautiful ventures into nature satisfied our needs.
We would talk along the way. When out in nature for great lengths of time, I found that I could recall life memories with incredible clarity. I began to talk about my time with Ella. My daughters loved hearing about young Michael. They especially enjoyed hearing about Ella. I remember them subsequently telling me that my stories took their minds off the pains of long hiking. “Tell us more about Ella, Dad.” “Tell us more about the Countess.” Subsequently, I began to record these memories on my phone when hiking or walking alone.
How did Ella’s stories about her life as a Russian countess shape your understanding of history and identity?
At the time I met Ella, my life experience was limited, although I had a four-year foundation at Princeton that taught me how to see much more than is typically in one’s view. I refer to that in the book’s opening when writing about Princeton’s Cannon Green. With an untrained eye, one might not notice the cannon buried nose-down, with only a foot or so of its back end above the ground. I had spent four years learning how to look, how to question, and how to evaluate.
Architecture, for me, involved practical applications of knowledge. I also entered Ella’s home with a wonderful foundation of family. Soon, I was learning history—Russian history and, at times, my own Jewish history—in a warm familial setting. Life can be incredibly challenging. No doubt, that was the case for Ella. But she was a survivor. Bit by bit, I listened and learned about both the challenges she faced and the survival practices that shaped her life.
To another, she might be viewed as just another aging woman. To me, she was a Firebird.
A key theme in your book is choosing how we want to live our lives despite our circumstances. How did Ella embody this lesson, and how has it guided you?
Young Ella was living as a royal when she listened to a personal calling to volunteer as a nurse in a large military hospital in St. Petersburg. She could have stayed in Moscow with the privileges of being royal. Her family argued with her not to go. But she went to St. Petersburg, and the result of Ella following her personal sense of how she wanted to live ultimately saved her life during the revolution.
To the very end, Ella embodied a spirit of helping those in need while embracing all the beauty that life offers. She surrounded herself with friends, family, art, poetry, music, food, wine, spirituality, and laughter.
What do you hope readers take away from reading your book?
I hope readers enjoy the story of young Michael for its own sake. I also hope they take what they can from Ella’s wonderful guidance and apply it to their own lives. Life can be so difficult and so very painful—that is built into the journey of life.
There is a Pushkin poem that Ella recites at a family gathering, a poem she learned much earlier in her life: “A Feast in the Time of Plague.” To me, this poem is about life itself. In the poem, the angel of death swirls around outside a cabin filled with people aware that the angel is nearby. They choose to close the windows. They choose to continue with their feast. They choose to live their days in full celebration, without fear of what life there may be after life. Ella embodied just that, surrounding herself with what she loved.
Writing this book must have been a deeply personal journey. Did revisiting these memories bring any surprises or revelations?
Indeed, writing the book was a deeply personal journey for me. I am of Russian Jewish descent from both my mother’s and father’s family. That my maternal and paternal grandparents were able to escape the pogroms of Russia led to my existence.
I have had a fascination with Russian history from a very young age. I took a course in the Russian language in high school, and I recall reading voluminous Russian novels. Additionally, I was always allowed to sit at the “women’s table” and watch my father and his five sisters as I grew up. I felt a great comfort in that house on Linden Lane, and I have found ways to carry that with me throughout my life journey, including the time it took to recall and write Royal Edge.
What aspect of Royal Edge are you most proud of, and why?
Interesting question. What comes to mind—and perhaps I am taking myself too seriously—is that because art itself played such a guiding role in Ella’s life, I was able to bring art into the storytelling in many ways. From my own perspective, I could see this and weave it into the narrative.
I convey it through the poetry readings, her biblical interpretations, and the walls of her dining room, which were hand-painted works of art. The music was often Arthur Lourie. The tailor was an artist. The food was art and love.
Ella knew she was at the end of her life’s journey, and she knew I was at the beginning of mine—regardless of how my being drafted into the Vietnam War would play out. So, when answering what aspect of Royal Edge I am most proud of, I’d say it is that I absorbed Ella’s guidance, from which I have benefited greatly, and I have now preserved her messages so that others can enjoy and benefit from them, too.
Do you have any other projects you are currently working on?
I still work from time to time as a project management consultant. I am currently working on an apartment project in West Hollywood. As for writing, I have considered documenting my experience managing what was once the tallest skyscraper under construction in Chicago.
For more information please visit: Royal Edge
