December (37 page)
JS
London
2009
Firstly, I am indebted to my agent Judith Murdoch for all her help and support over the years, without which this book would not have happened.
Also, a big thank you to my editor, Maxine Hitchcock, for her patience and creative insight, as well as the production and marketing team at HarperCollins, and Camilla Ferrier at the Marsh Agency.
In researching this novel I would like to acknowledge the help of the following British Army officers: Captain Charles MacDonald (Household Cavalry Division), Captain Patrick Trueman (Royal Scots Dragoon Guards) and Major Mark Richardson (Royal Logistics Corps).
With regards to the Russian language and social content, I would like to thank Margarita Nikolaeva and Katya Grigoruk. I was also greatly helped by the GB-Russia Society, Pushkin House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, and the London School of Economics Russian lecture programme. Also, a huge thanks to Robert Chandler of Queen Mary College, University of London, for his comments and the inspiration provided by his beautiful translation of Vasily Grossman’s epic,
Life and Fate
.
Particular books and newspapers that I wish to acknowledge include:
—Anna Politkovskaya:
Putin’s Russia
—for her description of army mutinies—Arkady Babchenko:
One Soldier’s War
—about the brutal reality of being a conscript in the Russian army—Alena V. Ledeneva:
How Russia Really Works
—for her coverage of “informal practices” in Russia—Victoria E. Bonnell, Ann Cooper & Gregory Freidin:
Russia at the Barricades
—for descriptions of civil unrest in Moscow—Orlando Figes:
Natasha’s Dance. A Cultural History of Russia—Alexander Litvinenko & Yuri Felshtinsky:
Blowing Up Russia—Peter Julicher: Renegades,
Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars—David Bellavia:
House to House
—on the reality of modern urban warfare—
The Times—
The New Yorker—
The Economist—
The Moscow Times
Finally, for proof reading and suggestions I am indebted to Ashley House and Patrick White.
This book is inspired by and dedicated to all Russian writers and I have used their names and the names of characters from their books in tribute to them, full details are on my website. I am in awe of their Romantic compassion for creation and humanity that led them to write so beautifully.
London, 2009.
DECEMBER
James Steel is a writer and journalist based in the UK.
To find out more about James visit www.jamessteel.info
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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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A Paperback Original 2009
FIRST EDITION
Copyright © James Steel 2009
The author gratefully acknowledges the following for permission to use extracts from books:
The Random House Group Ltd for:
Life and Fate,
by Vasily Grossman, published by Harvill.
Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd.
Translation by Robert Chandler 2006.
Dr Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak, published by Harvill.
Reprinted by permission of the Random House Group Ltd.
Wordsworth Editions Ltd, UK, for:
Anton Chekhov
,
Short Stories
, published 1996,
as well as introduction and notes, copyright 2002 Joe Andrew.
AP Watt Ltd, UK. Permission is granted by AP Watt on behalf of the Executor of the Estate of Constance Garnett for: Constance Garnett, 1926 translation of Nikolai Gogol’s story ‘St John’s Eve’ in the collection ‘Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, Part I.’
James Steel asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34631-8
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