Zapping back to the south of France,

I must have written about one of my fall-time favourite books. ‘The Master and Margarita’ by Mikhail Bulgakov before Just writing the title and author’s name takes me zapping back to the south of France, to a campsite in Gorbio, a tiny village just above Menton on the Mediterranean Sea. I’m sure it was 1971, but it may have been 1972, and the three of us were camping there as one of us was at a summer language course as part of his degree in Nice.

We had travelled down from Manchester in an Austin van, the two lads in the front, me and the luggage and camping gear in the back. We had a place on a campsite which must have been booked by sending a letter to the owner, and two tents – a large one for the lads and for living in, the smaller (well, tiny) one for me. We had a camping stove – we could only afford to eat out occasionally, and when the one who was studying took the car to college in Nice, us two stayed at the campsite, sunbathing and reading, or went for a wander in the pinewoods.

I was lying on a raffia mat, maybe with a towel underneath me as well, loving the heat, loving the scent of the trees, and began to read a book I had randomly bought. It was always a habit to buy a load of books to take on holiday and I think that was the year that I also took the complete ”Lord of the Rings trilogy, or maybe it was ‘The Godfather’. Whenever that first time – my memories of ‘The Master and Margarita’ are forever bound to the south of France. It is a wonderful and extraordinary book, and I’m sure I didn’t fully understood it when I read it aged twenty or twenty-one, and even having read it several times since, and read about it, there are many mysteries – which makes it even more magical and intriguing.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was born in 1891 in Kiev, in what is now Ukraine to a Russian couple, Varvara a teacher and Afanasiy a professor. Mikhail became a doctor graduating when he was twenty-five, and volunteering as a doctor during WW1. He had started writing from being much younger, and had told his sister he wanted to be a writer, giving up medicine in 1919 and moving with his wife to Moscow. His first writings were based on his medical experiences, but he soon to began to write books which were critical of the Soviet regime – a dangerous and brave thing to do. ”The Master and Margarita” was written in secret and only published after his death – he died from kidney disease in 1940 at the age of forty-nine. His wonderful book was published by his wide Elena in 1966

I don’t know how many times I’ve read it – but I realise that although I remember it so vividly, it’s quite a few years since I actually reread it. I think the last time was when I recommended it for my book club to read – which they did. Unfortunately instead of reading the wonderful Michael Glenny translation, they had all got an American translation which was so ridiculously bad that even my expert and persistent booky friends couldn’t make head nor tail of it, and all had abandoned it. I think this is the first and only time all of the doughty bunch had all given up on a book.

I will start tonight – and see if it still spins its magic for me, or whether my brain has lost some of its stamina!! I will report back!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/schedules/bbc_radio_f