Thursday 16 October 2014

The last lap

I've not been blogging for a while as I've been heavily into writing (and trying to hit a stupid little white ball with a long stick, with little success as usual).  'Glasnost' should be out by the end of November.  However, one of the problems with researching recent political events to weave a story around, is drilling through the myths and conjecture to find the facts.  The climax to the book will be based around the three days in August 1991 when Soviet hardliners attempted to oust Gorbachev while he was on holiday in his villa at Foros on the Black Sea.  The more I've dug into the story, the more I've realised that probably no one really knows what happened and I include Gorbachev in that.  There are plenty of conspiracy theories and as many views as there are writers on the subject.  Of course this is all grist to the mill of the novel writer because I can pick and choose which set of 'truths' to use.
Rather like my book 'The Caspian Monster'  the more I researched the subject, the more I realised that the whole incident was far more critical to world peace than was reported in the western media.   However, in this case it was just the start of a process in that in Russia is still going on today.  When Gorbachev unleashed the floodgates of  Perestroika and Glasnost - Restructuring and Openness - I wonder if he realised just how far the avalanche of change would reach.............(apologies for the dreadful mix of metaphors!)


The villa on the Black Sea where Gorbachev was imprisoned for three days - or was he???




 

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