[2] He left Romania at the outbreak of World War II and moved to London, as his father, a pro-Allied diplomat who served under Romanian Minister Viorel Tilea to the United Kingdom, defied a recall order from the pro-Axis government of Ion Antonescu.

[3][4] In protest of Romania's new alliance with Nazi Germany, Florescu's father resigned his post and joined the Free Rumanian Committee in opposition to the fascist Antonescu regime.

With one child, Nicholas, born in Austin, Texas, Radu Florescu moved east and began his academic career as a Professor of history at Boston College.

He advised Edward Kennedy on matters of the Balkans, and also served as the press liaison for the White House during the state visit of President Richard Nixon in 1969 in Romania.

In his retirement from France and Poiana Brașov, Florescu repurposed the East European Research Centre to create an annual scholarship for several gifted Romanian teenagers to study in the Boston area during summer months.

The book was translated into 15 languages and boosted the Romanian tourism industry as young Westerners flocked to Romania to trace the footsteps of the historical Dracula.

Florescu's last book, also written with McNally, investigated the possible true identity of the person on whom Robert Louis Stevenson may have based Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.