ŷ������

Happy May Day, everyone.

Apologies, I haven't got lilies of the valley for you, but here's the first rose from our garden, with a glimpse of the irises which are flowering gaily.



Happy reading, as ever.

A beauty, thank you:)

Happy Mayday to everyone and the continued fight for the rights of all workers (hint hint Mr Barclay with the nurses)

Despite an irritating random cough(absent at night wierdly), i have been enjoying this rich seam of reading in the first four months of 2023. Just picked up the Harris novel about Munich from Waterstones, strolling in light drizzle

In my reading Shiva Naipaul has now moved into Tanzania, in his East African travelogue North of South, finding it poorer, more chaotic and more socialist than Kenya, which he describes as vast Kikuyu business of self-enrichment. He admires Nyere and his ideals but finds reality lacking. It seems the standards of hotels and service in mid 1970s Africa were appalling.

Frayns novel of 1950s Moscow The Russian Interpreter has started impressively, set around the university where so many studied, including Gorby and Czech dissedent Zdenek Mlynar in the 1950s.

The Richards tales of Pontypridd life form WW2 to the 1970s are wonderful in Dai Country. The cover bears famous Ponty lad Tom Jones, next to a pit pulley, lighting a cigar...

AB76 wrote: "Happy Mayday to everyone and the continued fight for the rights of all workers (hint hint Mr Barclay with the nurses)."

Happy May Day to all!

I was interested in this, and decided to research a little bit - it seems (as one might expect) that the fairly recent celebration of May Day as 'International Workers Day' is an example of a recent movement grafting its party onto a much older tradition (churches have been expert at this). So:

May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.


International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries[1] and often referred to as May Day,[2][3] is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May,[4][5] or the first Monday in May.

Intriguing to see how festivals can develop and morph over time.

Gpfr wrote: "Happy May Day, everyone.

Apologies, I haven't got lilies of the valley for you..."

And to you, too - thanks for keeping the show on the road!

The reference to lilies of the valley (muguet des bois) may possibly baffle non-French readers, but madame jokingly complained that I had failed to provide her with any this morning... I don't think they grow around our way! I became aware of the tradition during my years living in France.

The 1st May is la Fête du Travail (Labor Day) �� possibly the only public holiday in France where almost everything is closed for the day! On this date, it is French tradition for Muguet (Lily of the Valley) flowers, a symbol for the month of May, to be given to friends and loved ones.
.

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Happy Mayday to everyone and the continued fight for the rights of all workers (hint hint Mr Barclay with the nurses)."

Happy May Day to all!

I was interested in this, and decided to..."

very interesting and of course the maypole dancing and stuff is that celebration of the start of summer you mention

i have to say summer starting on 1st may is probably true in southern europe but unlikely in the north, or the UK!

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Happy Mayday to everyone and the continued fight for the rights of all workers (hint hint Mr Barclay with the nurses)."

Happy May Day to all!

I was interested in ..."

Re: Summer and southern Europe - (NYT - gift)

Doesn't Russia usually have a May Day parade? I see that things are so bad in Cuba (not enough gas) that there will be no parade there. I feel bad for the ordinary people there - they are just so poor.

Robert - thanks for the Cain Postman Italian adaptation. Sounds fascinating, I’ll search for it somehow��

I’m just done with The Chukchi Bible by Yuri Rytkheu translated from the Chukot by Ilona Yazbhin Chavasse.

I’ve read, and greatly enjoyed, one of Rytkheu’s two translated works of fiction, A Dream in Polar Fog, and will soon get round to the other, When the Whales Leave.

I came to Rytkheu’s books after reading the story of the disastrous Jeannette expedition in Hampton Sides’s excellent In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette. For a tale such as this, I would direct readers to A Dream In The Polar Fog.

Rytkheu, born in 1930, is the only Chukchi writer to be translated into English, and is considered the ‘father�� of Chukchi literature. He, and his forebears, are from the coastal village of Uelen, which is located on a spit of land in the Chukotka region in the far northeast of Russia and is the country’s eastern most settlement, about sixty miles from Alaska. I’d encourage anyone remotely interested to search for some images, it looks an incredible place to live.

This book is classed a non-fiction, and is a blend of legend and actual history. In the author’s own words..

The book is not just the story of my lineage, and not just the story of our clan, but also the genealogy and the root of all my books.

The first part of the book provides detail about the early development of different cultures and land-based economies in the region, setting the scene for the main event, which takes up the majority of the book, the life of Rytkheu’s grandfather, the last shaman of Uelen.

Rytkheu died in 2008, and in his latter years enjoyed some fame as Russia’s leading indigenous writer. He travelled widely, and spoke frequently at significant events worldwide. This was has last book, published in 2000, and reflects quite a bit of criticism of Soviet dealings with the north.

The book has a powerful ending with the murder of his grandfather. It is unsurprising that not only was he a fierce critic of the Soviet Union, but also other attempts to ‘civilise�� indigenous ways of life.

It is likely to be one of the great sadnesses in my life of travel that I will never get the chance to visit the peninsula.

scarletnoir wrote: ... it seems (as one might expect) that the fairly recent celebration of May Day as 'International Workers Day' is an example of a recent movement....

I wouldn't call it a recent movement. Considering that it has existed for well over 100++ years in different countries.

For a much older take on what is, essentially, the same plot as The Postman Always Rings Twice, see the Elizabethan play Arden of Feversham.

Have you read the article about whether censorship actually creates an appetite for books which someone is trying to ban?



I don't know if those of my age have similar memories about Lady Chatterley's Lover �� after the trial, passing the brown paper covered paperback around in the playground of my nice girl's grammar school, looking for the 'sexy bits'. My 12-year-old self didn't make much of it 😏. I don't know who we were trying to fool with the brown paper.

Gpfr wrote: "Have you read the article about whether censorship actually creates an appetite for books which someone is trying to ban?

..."

Here is the 2nd public library (first was in Brooklyn, NY) to do its bit to thwart banned books.

MK wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Have you read the article about whether censorship actually creates an appetite for books which someone is trying to ban?"

Here is the 2nd public library (first was in Brooklyn, NY) to do its bit to thwart banned books...."

Excellent.

And now I've received my lilies of the valley

Gpfr wrote: "Happy May Day, everyone.

Apologies, I haven't got lilies of the valley for you, but here's the first rose from our garden, with a glimpse of the irises which are flowering gaily.



Happy reading,..."

Thank gpfr for the new thread. My goodness, your flowers are ahead of mine, although the irises will be flowering soon.

Gpfr wrote: "Have you read the article about whether censorship actually creates an appetite for books which someone is trying to ban?

..."

Gpfr wrote: "Have you read the article about whether censorship actually creates an appetite for books which someone is trying to ban?

..."

I have similar memories of the trial. Seems very tame now.

Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others between 1939-1989. Gorky Park was one, though i cant find the copy i had knocking about

The author having lived in Russia for a period or speaking Russian would help...nothing written after 1989 of course would fall into my category

MK wrote: "Re: Summer and southern Europe - (NYT - gift) ..."

The extreme heat in Spain has had quite a bit of coverage in the UK, too. It's been even worse in Thailand and other parts of Asia:


Other articles have repeated a prediction made some time ago that parts of the world will become uninhabitable by 2050.

MK wrote: "Doesn't Russia usually have a May Day parade? I see that things are so bad in Cuba (not enough gas) that there will be no parade there. I feel bad for the ordinary people there - they are just so poor..."

Of course, one of the reasons - and quite likely the major reason - for poverty in Cuba is the USA embargo , which:

prevents U.S. businesses, and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by U.S. citizens, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. The U.S. first imposed an embargo on the sale of arms to Cuba on March 14, 1958, during the Fulgencio Batista regime. Again on October 19, 1960, almost two years after the Cuban Revolution had led to the deposition of the Batista regime, the U.S. placed an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine after Cuba nationalized the US-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation. On February 7, 1962, the embargo was extended to include almost all exports. The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution every year since 1992 demanding the end of the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, with the U.S. and Israel being the only nations to consistently vote against the resolutions.

Georg wrote: "I wouldn't call it a recent movement. Considering that it has existed for well over 100++ years in different countries."

I was making a comparison:

The earliest known May celebrations appeared with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held from 27 April �� 3 May during the Roman Republic era, and the Maiouma or Maiuma, a festival celebrating Dionysus and Aphrodite held every three years during the month of May.
(Roman Republic era: 509 BC - 27 BC)

In 1889, the Marxist International Socialist Congress met in Paris and established the Second International as a successor to the earlier International Workingmen's Association. They adopted a resolution for a "great international demonstration" in support of working-class demands for the eight-hour day. The 1 May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labor to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1 May 1886.

So: more than 1000 years versus less than 150 years.

In historical terms, therefore, 'recent' seems fair enough to me. I didn't mean 'recent' in relation to a human lifespan!

Gpfr wrote: "Have you read the article about whether censorship actually creates an appetite for books which someone is trying to ban?...

I don't know if those of my age have similar memories about Lady Chatterley's Lover �� after the trial, passing the brown paper covered paperback around in the playground..."

I remember it well... some of us were able to 'source' copies and took great interest in the well-thumbed pages! Some years later, and slightly older, I read it properly... it has some merit, but I wasn't much taken with the rant about men marching about in red waistcoats or somesuch... it sounded not only macho, but vaguely fascist* (that's from memory - I think I have the right book; apologies if wrong). I'm pretty sure that 'Sons and Lovers' and 'Women in Love' are better novels - again from memory.

*Checked this notion out on Wiki... and found these comments:

Lawrence was essentially contrary by nature and hated to be pigeonholed.[40] Critics such as Terry Eagleton[41] have argued that Lawrence was right wing due to his lukewarm attitude to democracy, which he intimated would tend towards the leveling down of society and the subordination of the individual to the sensibilities of the "average" man. In his letters to Bertrand Russell around 1915, Lawrence voiced his opposition to enfranchising the working class and his hostility to the burgeoning labour movements, and disparaged the French Revolution, referring to "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" as the "three-fanged serpent." Rather than a republic, Lawrence called for an absolute dictator and equivalent dictatrix to lord over the lower peoples.[42] In 1953, recalling his relationship with Lawrence in the First World War, Russell characterised Lawrence as a "proto-German Fascist," saying "I was a firm believer in democracy, whereas he had developed the whole philosophy of Fascism before the politicians had thought of it."[43] Russell felt Lawrence to be a positive force for evil.[44] However, in 1924 Lawrence wrote an epilogue to Movements in European History (a textbook he wrote, originally published in 1921) in which he denounced fascism and Soviet-style socialism as bullying and “a mere worship of Force��. Further, he declared “I believe a good form of socialism, if it could be brought about, would be the best form of government.��

Gpfr wrote: "And now I've received my lilies of the valley

"

Nice picture - madame found one sprig in my mother's garden. It is now on our kitchen table!

AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others between 1939..."

Does anything by Kim Philby count? 😀

AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others between 1939..."

I was about to suggest Helen Dunmore's The Siege and The Betrayal, set in Leningrad during and after WWII. She didn't live in Russia but was Russian speaking.
However, I then woke up to the fact that you want written between 1939 and 1989, not set in that period, so no good.
Recommended if anyone else hasn't read them ...

While re-arranging my books, I came across 3 crime novels by Janet Neel (aka Baroness Cohen of Pimlico, Labour peer in the House of Lords), the first, Death's Bright Angel, published in 1988. I decide to re-read it and enjoyed it.
There's a series of 7, featuring John McLeish, CID, and Francesca Wilson, high-flying civil servant in the Department of Trade and Industry. In the first, the DTI is considering whether to bail out a textile manufacturer in difficulties, but this economic investigation gets mixed up with a murder inquiry.
Quick and entertaining reads.

I looked to see if others in the series were available. A publisher I hadn't heard of, Ostara Crime, is bringing out out-of-print crime novels. Another writer I saw on their list is Lesley Grant-Adamson ( a former Guardian journalist) some of whose books I enjoyed and still have.

I'm late to the discussion from last week's thread, but as an American living in Europe I utterly loathe with every ounce of my being the Celsius scale. As a scientist, it's fantastic. It's great knowing that distilled water boils at 100 and freezes at 0, Fantastic. But it's completely non-descriptive of the environmantal gradations that occur within human experience. If you have to express your weather with decimals, your scale is hogwash and this will become more and more of an issue here in Southern Europe where generally stable weather is taking on a much more American instability for temperature fluctuations.

The mile can go screw itself. The pound can take a flying leap. The ounce? An abomination! But Celsius is balderdash for chemists with simple solutions. Long live Fahrenheit!

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others ..."

I was really impressed by

Written by a poet, stark, simple, completely unpretentious.

I knew about the siege of Leningrad. But she brought home what history books can sometimes not deliver: the heartbreaking reality of a most atrocious war crime committed by the German Wehrmacht.

Paul wrote: " it's completely non-descriptive of the environmental gradations that occur within human experience. If you have to express your weather with decimals, your scale is hogwash...

A bizarre rant, Paul!

If you are able to distinguish between (say) 50F and 51F, you might have a point.

Can you - hand on heart - swear that you are able to do that? I certainly could not! Human beings are very poor at temperature measurement, which is why we have temperature scales and thermometers. It takes the subjective element out of things.

For non-scientists I attach a description of how the Fahrenheit scale was developed:

The Fahrenheit scale (/ˈfærənˌhaɪt, ˈfɑːr-/) is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686��1736).[1] It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his scale exist, but the original paper suggests the lower defining point, 0 °F, was established as the freezing temperature of a solution of brine made from a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride (a salt).[2][3] The other limit established was his best estimate of the average human body temperature, originally set at 90 °F, then 96 °F (about 2.6 °F less than the modern value due to a later redefinition of the scale.

I suppose you would need to be a chemist to mix the exact same mixture of water, ice and ammonium chloride as Mr Fahrenheit, but - good luck with that, I say. As for the temperature of a human body, well...

Of course given the extremely approximate method of measuring the fixed points when it was originally proposed, the scale has had to be redefined several times. Currently:
It is now formally defined using the Kelvin scale[4][5] and hence ultimately by the Boltzmann constant, the Planck constant, and the second (defined as a specific number of cycles of the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium-133 atom.)

and as for Celsius, the same applies:

On 20 May 2019, the kelvin was redefined so that its value is now determined by the definition of the Boltzmann constant rather than being defined by the triple point of VSMOW. This means that the triple point is now a measured value, not a defined value. The newly-defined exact value of the Boltzmann constant was selected so that the measured value of the VSMOW triple point is exactly the same as the older defined value to within the limits of accuracy of contemporary metrology. The temperature in degree Celsius is now defined as the temperature in kelvins subtracted by 273.15,[5][6] meaning that a temperature difference of one degree Celsius and that of one kelvin are exactly the same,[7] and that the degree Celsius remains exactly equal to the kelvin (i.e., 0 °C remains exactly 273.15 K).

Since both Fahrenheit and Celsius are now defined with reference to the kelvin and the Boltzmann constant, I take it that they are formally equivalent and that a preference for one over the other comes down to a purely subjective choice.

(Myself, I could not care less and can use both. Thermometry - including the definition of temperature scales - is actually quite interesting and challenging, though I only realised this years after leaving uni.)

scarletnoir wrote: As for the temperature of a human body, well...

About 100 F?
:-)

(my "Eselsbrücke" before you mentioned the 50 F=10 C used to be 61 F=16 C)

Maybe we should all adopt Kelvin...

scarletnoir wrote: "
A bizarre rant..."

Yeah I know. I just get tired of hearing the Eurocentric viewpoint that boils down to "but the math is easier." Which while true, doesn't make it any less arbitrary a measurement.

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others ..."

yes the date range was the catch, i am aware of a lot of modern novels looking back but am more interested in novels written at the time. Frayn is really impressing me, there is a mix of Greene, le Carre and Waugh, so much said in a sharp succint style

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others ..."

lol....i have read his autobiog of sorts, though very little about his knocking about Moscow feeling sorry for himself!

Paul wrote: "I'm late to the discussion from last week's thread, but as an American living in Europe I utterly loathe with every ounce of my being the Celsius scale. As a scientist, it's fantastic. It's great k..."

But apart from that you are quite happy?

Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: As for the temperature of a human body, well...

About 100 F?
:-)

(my "Eselsbrücke" before you mentioned the 50 F=10 C used to be 61 F=16 C)

28C = 82F?

Paul wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "
A bizarre rant..."

Yeah I know. I just get tired of hearing the Eurocentric viewpoint that boils down to "but the math is easier." Which while true, doesn't make it any less a..."

😉

It's interesting what gets people's hackles up. Ages ago my life was dictated by having to get to work. Now it is 'what will the weather be like this week?' And this week (sun out today and Wednesday) I will once again be spending some time in the yard. You would not believe how many dead parts can appear on older rose bushes. And I have a new toy! A stirrup hoe - take that weeds. My back will appreciate money spent.

For my down-time, I am waiting to hear that For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond (Ben MacIntyre!) to wend its way to my library for pick up.

Here's the dope on that - Published to coincide with the 2008 Imperial War Museum exhibition of the same name, this is a thrilling stand-alone book that looks into the entwined worlds of James Bond and Ian Fleming. The book and exhibition will explore how Fleming's 007 emerged against the background of the Second World War and the Cold War, and how Bond's world was based on the realities (and fantasies) of Fleming's life as a wartime spy-master and peacetime bon viveur. They will show how the film version of Bond evolved for a later age, and answer a question that has obsessed generations of Bond fans over the years- where does the world of Ian Fleming end, and that of James Bond begin?

I think this will finish my foray into Ian Fleming and the Life and Times of 007.

I see that Gpfr recommended the late Helen Dunmore’s The Siege, and The Betrayal. I can highly recommend all her novels and short story collections. So sad she is no longer with us. An East Riding compatriot, I had the pleasure of seeing her several times, and she was always a highlight of book festivals. Her final novel, Birdcage Walk, has been read here more than once, and was also an R4 Book at Bedtime.

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others ..."

Just checked the shelf and found Death's Bright Angel in paperback, so I've put it on the top of my bedside TBR pile. Thanks.

Paul wrote: "I'm late to the discussion from last week's thread, but as an American living in Europe I utterly loathe with every ounce of my being the Celsius scale. As a scientist, it's fantastic. It's great k..."
On the whole I agree with you. Fahrenheit gives a finer idea of temperature but maybe I feel that way because of familiarity.

Sometime i regret the passing of our old pound shilling and pence monetary system, maybe not for the obvious reason. Remembering that
4 farthings or 2 halfpennies mde a penny
12 pennies in a shilling, 20 shillings a pound, 21 a guinea,
2 shillings made a florin and 2 shilling and sixpence made half a crown……��..,,.

Teaching basic arithmetic skills like +,-,/,x , not easy but children managed. We learned because we needed to to manage our money but it had the added advantage of practising working in different bases - so many different ones all built in. While this might seem tortuous there is flexibility, a mathematical concept of some difficulty hidden but absorbed..
Making things easy may not be best in the long term. Additionally there needed to be some comprehension of place value - to my mind the misunderstanding of place vale contributes to the abysmal levels of mathematics here in UK
Sorry rant over

With the senseless war raging in Ukraine, i have been trying to read more Ukrainian literature from the last 30 years, avoiding some of the over hype and focusing on lesser known books, keeping that culture alive.

I loved and enjoyed Lucky Breaks by Belarousets(though written in Russian) and via a random google search i found The Moscaviad by Yuri Andrukovich(1993) and have ordered it, translated from the Ukranian

Literature from that post USSR 1990-1995 period is of interest to me, Sorokins The Queue is another on my list, though Russian but am put off by the idea of a whole novel comprising dialogue

Having studied History at university, where the 1848 revolution(s) was the central focus of my studies, its great to see new histories about that era , great work on WW1 and of course the avalanche of books about WW2.

The Cold war is well documented and even more obscure areas like the Portugese retreat from empire has a good selection of books but one area with a narrow choice and very little new writing is West Germany aka the BDR.

I have found so much on the DDR(East Germany), brilliant works of in-depth study with so much more to read (good!) but with West Germany i have really struggled and it seems due to its success and smooth history from 1949-1989, that it has been deemed "not interesting enough".

When i finish Naipauls East African travelogue, i will be reading one of my better finds on the BDR The making of German democracy: West Germany during the Adenauer era, 1945��65 . Its an academic study, based on original texts and manuscripts and may be a hard read but i am astonished at the lack of variety out there

I am not helped by my focus on detailed studies of small time periods, a 450 page book on the 1949-89 period is good for popular history but i'd rather have 450 pages on barely 10 years!

Georg wrote: "Maybe we should all adopt Kelvin..."

Absolutely - after all, it is the 'absolute' scale of temperature! ;-)

The kelvin is the primary unit of temperature for engineering and the physical sciences

Physics formulas with the 'temperature' (as opposed to 'temperature difference') simply don't work if you start using the values in another scale. However, I don't anticipate that the general public would readily adopt the idea that water freezes at 273 (kelvins)!

Paul wrote: " (It) doesn't make it any less arbitrary a measurement."

All temperature scales are human inventions - so in that sense you are right.

However, the Celsius scale links directly to the kelvin: The kelvin is the base unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms... the SI units are agreed by regular meetings of distinguished scientists, and their definitions adjusted as more accurate methods of measurement are developed.
(You always try to define an unit with reference to the most accurate measurements possible.)

In magnitude 1 deg C = 1 kelvin, though the fixed points are different. Such is not true for Fahrenheit, so no scientist would use that scale. Why complicate life unnecessarily?

(Non-scientists, as I said before, can make a subjective choice based on preference.)

It is a good job we aren't having these discussion on TLS as was, we would all have been banned for repeatedly going off topic.🤣

giveusaclue wrote: "It is a good job we aren't having these discussion on TLS as was, we would all have been banned for repeatedly going off topic.🤣"

You are an inspiration! I've just gone to WWR with a rant. Not telling yet - will wait to see if it survives or not.

Predator watchers - it's that time of year -

Can be viewed on YouTube by searching for Cromer peregrines.

giveusaclue wrote: "It is a good job we aren't having these discussion on TLS as was, we would all have been banned for repeatedly going off topic.🤣"

Guardian TLS is a dangerous place to have an opinion nowadays!

giveusaclue wrote: "It is a good job we aren't having these discussion on TLS as was, we would all have been banned for repeatedly going off topic.🤣"

Haha! You are not wrong. I apologise for boring you all!

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "It is a good job we aren't having these discussion on TLS as was, we would all have been banned for repeatedly going off topic.🤣"

Haha! You are not wrong. I apologise for borin..."

No need to apologise.

AB76 wrote: "Any suggestions for novels written by foreigners living or working in the USSR?

As i'm currently reading Frayns The Russian Interpreter, i was wondering if anyone can think of others between 1939..."

This may not fit, but - The Soviet Century: Archaeology of a Lost World. I've just gotten it from the library and think it may be too heavy to read - weighing in at 3 lbs 14 (okay 13 3/4) oz. Originally published in 2008, it has now been translated into English and published by the Princeton University Press.