Hey! We have a twitter account… please join us: @tellingtales2
I’m about halfway through reading Red Famine by @anneapplebaum and it’s not only riveting – and harrowing – reading but has been so useful to corroborate and provide context to the stories that my wife’s family has told me about their relatives. The detail is extraordinary and the dispassionate vivid descriptions bring you to the room, the field, the railway station. The reasons why the Holodomor occurred are stark and laid bare.
If you have any interest in Ukraine and its history, if you want to see the current Russian aggression in the context of the past then you should read the book. It a hard read but worth it.
The kids being off school (driving us mad) and me losing my job was bad enough but the final blow last month was my Dad passing away. So, all in all, it’s been a difficult time to write… timewise and with a clear head.
But despite this, I am 25% through my target of 90,000 words and it’s in a good shape. There’s a plot, sub-plots, and an underlying saga that sweeps from Uman to Krakow in the early 20th Century underpinned by characters who are coming to life….
I won’t gloss over the hours of research. I just think of the finish line and that keeps me going.
I'm the author of the blog and the book "Telling Tales". I spent a happy decade in Ukraine working and living and am now settled in the UK with my Ukrainian wife and our three children. The book is based loosely on tales from Anya's past most notably the period of the Holodomor.
This is the working cover and title of my new project