ATHINA ONASSIS ROUSSEL, the richest little girl in the world, has inherited much more than unimaginable wealth from her heiress mother, Christina Onassis.

In her twelfth year, she is fully aware of the headline-making battle between her French father, Thierry Rousel, and a group of Greek trustees for control of her share of the Onassis billions. This compelling book explores the legend of Athina's grandfather, the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, and examines the legacy that is Athina's extraordinary birthright as the Last Onassis.

No 20th-Century saga features more great names than that of the Onassis dynasty: the Kennedys, including JFK and his widow Jacqueline, who became Onassis's second wife; the opera diva Maria Callas who longed to be the third; and Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, with whom he fought a celebrated feud for control of Monte Carlo.

The cast list is endless: The Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo, the politicians Sir Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon, the tycoons Stavros Niarchos and Howard Hughes, and the FBI chief J.Edgar Hoover.

The authors have travelled the world to interview key witnesses, many of whom have never before spoken for publication.

In New York, the former Onassis bodyguard Frank Monte exposed the secrets of intrigue and sexual misconduct that Onassis thought he had taken to his grave.

In Paris, Florence Grinda, Christina's mother confessor' for 20 years, told her friend's suffering over her failures in love and of the joy she had found through Athina's birth.

In Switzerland, Thierry Roussel's former mistress, Kirsten Gille, told how he raised a second family while still married to Christina Onassis, and how he enjoyed the company of other beautiful women.

In Greece, Christina's devoted maid, Eleni Syros, talked for the first time about her mistress's mysterious death in Argentina in 1988 and of the life her daughter, Athina, lives today.

No book has ever penetrated so deeply into the secret world of the Onassis dynasty or looked more closely at the lives of Theirry Rouseel and his second wife, the Swedish model Gaby Landhage, as they prepare to guide Athina through her teenage years.