A Gentleman from Moscow
One of my favourite novels, a Christmas Gift five years ago, is A Gentleman from Moscow by Amor Towles. It is one of those delightful stories that deal tactfully and lightheartedly with Imperial Russia, 1914 and all that, then 1917 and all that, through the prism of the delightful Metropol Hotel in Moscow.
It quietly sidesteps the terrible times that engulfed the Russian People, both before and through the Revolution and the absolute Terror of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany’s ruthless Invasion on 22 June 1941, the hallmark of which was, I say again, absolute terror, an invasion that was most definitely illegal.
I do not know why Russia regularly pops in to say hello, so I like to think it’s Count Ilyich Rostov during his lifetime’s house arrest in the Hotel Metropol, or of the young girl he first encountered in the hotel when she was nine and, over the decades that followed became almost a daughter to him.
It is good to be able to read lighthearted stories in these dangerous times. It is, as we say, the icing on the cake to be given so many lessons in life and manners without hurting anyone.
Because my two websites are regularly visited, I always like to see from where they emanate, and so I then extend the fantasy by imagining Ilyich Rostov, sometimes alone, sometimes with Nina and other times with the actress Anna Urbanova.
I do though take comfort in the fact that Bletchley Park has my back, that remarkable institution in which its present guise is, literally, ten minutes from my front door. It gives me that sense of security, you know like we had as kids, when we’d see the owl in the tree and we’d be reassured that he, she and they were keeping watch over us while we slept and would only go to bed when we left for school in the morning.
That’s all!
Ian Bradley Marshall
21 December 2024
LIVERPOOL
© 2024 Ian Bradley Marshall
Digital Artwork by IBM KTW unless otherwise credited
Maps are by Courtesy ‘screenshots’ from Google Maps to whom all rights are reserved
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
