The politics of pen pals
Published 09 October 2006
From Newbury with Love: letters of friendship across the Iron Curtain Edited by Anna Horsbrugh-Porter and Marina Aidova Profile Books, 264pp, £12.99 ISBN 186197860X
In 1971, Harold Edwards, Russophile, bookseller and avid letter writer, sent a postcard to Marina Aidova, saying simply: "With Love from Newbury, Berks, England." To Marina's mother, Lera, at home in Kishinev awaiting her husband's release from the Dubrovlag prison camp, it was a glimpse into another, cosier world. So began a correspondence between a troubled Russian family and a "garrulous old man" – a deluge of photographs, Vogue magazines and books: "perhaps single evidence of the fact the earth being a big beautiful ball".
The letters begin cautiously, as both parties tiptoe around the censors and dwell on the mundane and frivolous: Harold waxes lyrical about his garden, while Lera haltingly tells of the family's enjoyment of The Forsyte Saga.
The caution cannot hide the turbulence of the Aidovas' home life, however. On her husband's return, Lera writes: "It is not easy to explain in letters his present emotional state." None the less, the warmth that the letters convey (instigated by a list issued by Amnesty International) is undeniable, and it is with regret that we learn that their authors were unable ever to meet.
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