In her illuminating programme note accompanying the recent production of Summerfolk at the National Theatre, the cultural historian, Rosamund Bartlett, describes Maxim Gorky’s third play as a ‘grotesque next chapter’ to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (2003). Summerfolk was first staged in Moscow in November 1904, some four months after Chekhov’s death. Chekhov had been corresponding […]
Author: Jennifer Antill
To err is human….
‘Her taste exact for perfect fact amounts to a disease’ W.S. Gilbert (The Mikado) I hope that my novels are historically accurate and that, by and large, the facts within them are correct. I regret to say however that I have spotted one or two small mistakes in my first published novel, Small Acts of […]
Remembering the Decembrists
The Imperial Life Guards Regiment during the uprising of December 14th 1825 Senate Square. (19th Century). Vasily Timm (1820 -1895).The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. ‘The historical value of revolutions depends upon three conditions: upon what they destroy, upon what they create and upon the legend that they leave behind…The Decembrists have not destroyed anything or […]
Napoleon in Moscow
Napoleon Bonaparte receiving the keys of Vienna at the Schloss Schonbrunn , 13th November 1805. (1808) Anne-Louise Girodet de Roussey-Trioson (1767-1824) When Napoleon defeated his enemies in battle he expected the vanquished to concede and hand the keys of their capital cities to him. This occurred in Vienna (twice), Berlin and Madrid in the early […]
Mrs Adams in Winter
Sometimes you come across a book that would have been really useful when working on a project years ago! My talk ‘Russian Roads’ was developed in the early 2000’s. It is a rather eclectic mix that examines travelling in Russia through the ages. It also illustrates the work of the Peredvizhniki, the group of Russian […]
The Streltsy
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandford, on their excellent podcast ‘The rest is history’, recently featured a series on the subject of Peter the Great and the Great Northern War. I have not yet had time to listen to the whole narrative, but I much enjoyed the first episode which told the story of Peter’s early […]
Diplomatic Immunity
Right: Charles Whitworth, 1st Baron Whitworth (1675-1725) Guillaume Birochon Left: Andrey Artemovich Matveev (1666-1728) Artist unknown My Royal Connections talk is now complete and I recently delivered it for the first time at Brantham Historical Society. I think that it went well, although it was challenging to fit almost a thousand years of history into […]
A modest proposal
Ivan the Terrible showing his treasure to the English Ambassador. (Alexander Litovchenko 1875) The Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg. Did Ivan the Terrible propose to Elizabeth the First of England? I have been researching my Royal Connections talk that I will be giving to several historical societies later this year. Relations between the Russian and English […]
Fortune’s Price is published!
Fortune’s Price, the sequel to my first novel Small Acts of Kindness, was published last week. The book’s action commences in the summer of 1830, a time when Russia experienced an uprising in the Kingdom of Poland and the arrival from the east of a cholera epidemic. The main characters, many of whom the reader […]
The soviet dacha
Soviet-era dacha in Resheti, near Ekaterinburg I have just dusted down a talk that I gave some years ago about Russian dachas. I have been asked to give it again in early December. The lecture traces the history of this aspect of Russian life from its start in the 18h Century to the recent past. […]