Blog

Observations & meditations on the day-to-day

The untold love story.

Midway through my friend Anna Pasternack’s meticulously researched and profoundly moving “Lara” – an account of her great uncle Boris’ relationship with Olga Ivinskaya. What is striking is how utterly different their world was from ours – and I don’t just mean the gulags and the interrogations. What survives in Russia to this day is the “very real contact between the poet, and the public, greater than anywhere else in Europe, certainly far greater than is ever imaginable in England. Books of poetry were published in enormous editions and were sold out within a few days of publication.” How very refreshing – and how sad that this is not the case here as well!

Anna Pasternak is an acclaimed author, columnist and journalist.

Her new book, Lara, explores the true love story behind Doctor Zhivago, a dramatic and moving biography of the love and courage of Boris Pasternak’s mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Anna is the great niece of Boris Pasternak and her research took her to California, Paris, Moscow and St Petersburg. Lara will be published by HarperCollins in 2016.
Anna is the co-author of Call off the Search, which she wrote with her husband, psychotherapist Andrew Wallas: a searing account of their marriage and spiritual journey. She wrote her fortnightly On the Couch column for Daily Mail in 2010, exploring how therapy can help you find love. Her previous column, Daisy Dooley Does Divorce, ran for 4 years in the Daily Mail (2004-2008). Daisy Dooley Does Divorce, the novel, was published in 2007 over 12 countries. Anna is also the author of best-selling Princess in Love. The book, about Princess Diana’s affair with James Hewitt, was considered the scoop of the decade.
A controversial and outspoken journalist, Anna Pasternak has contributed to every single national newspaper in the UK. She regularly writes for the Sunday Times Style, Conde Nast Traveller, You Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia, and is a contributing editor of Country and Town House. She is a regular broadcaster for the Jeremy Vine Show and reviews newspapers for BBC Radio Live 5. She writes on and discusses women’s issues, breaking taboos about late life abortion, single motherhood and modern relationships with her characteristic resilience and humour.

Profile and image credit:   www.jamesgrant.com

— Shomit

 

Posted in Blog on Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Tagged with , , ,

×
+