She barked in Russian at the two if us, and signalled that we should follow. We weren’t going to argue. She took us to a platform just as a train was arriving, and indicated that we should get on.
She barked in Russian at the two if us, and signalled that we should follow. We weren’t going to argue. She took us to a platform just as a train was arriving, and indicated that we should get on.
The couple sitting across from us in our compartment polish off a bottle of vodka. We’re issued with a little lunchbox, with the driest looking sandwich I’ve ever seen. We’ve no vodka to wash it down so I just leave mine.
In the restoration department one student had been working for six months already scraping layers of paint off a Russian icon to reveal an original painting, centuries old. Another large painting of Lenin was being cleaned – on the other side, a painting of Tsar Nicolas II had been revealed. It hadn’t yet been decided which portrait was the most worthy of preserving.
I didn’t know Jane when she was alive, but I was approached by her brother Craig after he had read a piece I’d written on the National Collective website; I was asked to respond to her story. It was difficult…
I “do” words for a living, but these are among the hardest I’ve ever had to write. No words can even begin to explain what losing Jane has meant to us all. It has affected every aspect of our lives…
As I lie at night, trying to get to sleep, I sometimes think back to that cold October evening. I can still see Craig’s face as he appeared at his Grandparent’s living room door after receiving the phone call from…