Midnight in St. Petersburg (52 page)

Still, I've always been very grateful to Horace Wallick, grateful enough to want to write him a happier ending in this book. Finding out just when I did that he'd spent his years in Russia, with all their parallels to my own, but that no trace of him remained from that time, helped me decide to stop hanging around there myself, and come home to make a grown-up future before it was too late. I can't help thinking that it's all thanks to Horace that I did.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to offer heartfelt thanks both to Selina Walker, my wonderful publisher, and her team at Century/Arrow, and to Natasha Fairweather, my equally wonderful agent, who between them have spent longer than I like to remember patiently coaxing this manuscript into existence in published form.

My family has been no less forbearing, especially Chris, who has had the grace to read many drafts, over many months, and make many wise suggestions.

So many other people have contributed to the writing of this book. Of course my first debt of gratitude is to every larger-than-life character I ever met at any alternative art show,
khappening
, war zone, nightclub, crime scene, party or concert while living in Russia in the 1990s. At the very, very beginning of thinking about writing on this subject, the jeweller Kenneth Snowman, chairman of Wartski antique dealers and a leading expert on Fabergé, whose 1953 book mentioned Horace Wallick, filled in many gaps in my knowledge over lunch at the Connaught. More recently, the family of the late Felix Youssoupoff kindly answered my Facebook questions relating to an early draft, and several experts have shared views on Rasputin. From Moscow, Olya Shevtsova found me information about the real-life Anatoly Leman and his splendidly eccentric family. Toby Faber lent me violin books and shared his encyclopaedic knowledge of the violin world. I hope my violin-making teachers in Cambridge – Quentin, José, Bob, Kit, and of course Juliet – will find an oblique reference or two in the text that will make them smile, and that Olina the Cleaner will be pleased that her insult of choice, ‘you filthy haemorrhoid', made its way into the text. Nina Wilsdon, née Brodianskaya, my first Russian teacher, set me on the road to enjoying Russian poetry, St. Petersburg and the kind of wistful émigré stories I still love hearing from other friends with Russian backgrounds, including Shura Shihwarg and Peter Obolensky. The Russian-accented grannies of London friends of Jewish descent – who didn't want to speak Russian – prompted me, many years ago, to start finding out why those families might have wanted to come west. John and Penny Morrison were expert guides on all things Russian throughout my research. And my dear St. Petersburg friends the Karpovs may recognize their address, their kitchen, and their apple
sharlottka
.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

V
ANORA
B
ENNETT
studied Russian at Oxford University and in the USSR. She began her career as a journalist at Reuters and went on to serve as the Moscow correspondent for the
Los Angeles Times,
winning a U.S. Overseas Press Club award for her writing on Russia. She now lives in Britain and has won the Orwell Prize for political writing for her work at
The Times
(UK). She is the author of four previous novels, including
Portrait of an Unknown Woman,
and two works of nonfiction. You can sign up for email updates
here
.

    

 

A
LSO BY
V
ANORA
B
ENNETT

FICTION

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Queen of Silks

Blood Royal

The People's Queen

NONFICTION

Crying Wolf

The Taste of Dreams

 

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CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Part One: September–December 1911

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Part Two: 1916–17

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Part Three: 1918–19

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Afterword

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Vanora Bennett

Copyright

 

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin's Press.

MIDNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG.
Copyright © 2013 by Vanorissima Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.stmartins.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Bennett, Vanora, 1962–

    Midnight in St. Petersburg: a novel / Vanora Bennett.—1st U.S. ed.

        p. cm.

    ISBN 978-1-250-07943-5 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-4668-9216-3 (e-book)

1.  Young women—Russia (Federation)—Saint Petersburg—Fiction.   2.  FICTION / Historical.   3.  FICTION / Literary.   4.  Saint Petersburg (Russia)—History—20th century—Fiction.   I. Title.

    PR6102.E666 M53 2016

    823'.92—dc23

2015037438

e-ISBN 9781466892163

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First published in Great Britain by Century

First U.S. Edition: January 2016