memoirs

Entries Tagged as 'memoirs'

Book Launching (France): “Journal d’exil” by Mircea Milcovitch, Éditions Amalthée

January 8th, 2012 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, International Media, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

Les “Éditions Amalthée” publieront dans la seconde moitié du mois de février 2012 le “Journal d’Exil”. Ce récit avait été rédigé après l’arrivée en France de l’artiste, entre octobre 1968 jusqu’à la fin de l’année 1969. Le livre est préfacé par le docteur Marc Andronikof.
he Éditions Amalthée publishing house will launch in February 2012 the Memoirs of artist sculptor Mircea Milcovitch (Mircea Milcovici), with a preface by Mark Andronikoff. This book is written by en exile, whose family was no stranger to the sad road of uprooting. Mircea’s father, himself a native of Bessarabia, was compelled to seek refuge in the Kingdom of Romania in the wake of the invasion by the Red Army, at the end of WWII. T
Whilst reading an early draft of this Memoir, one encounters a certain melancholy, imbued by generations of displaced ancestors, living at the confluence of warring empires. But beyond this one can detect a strong determination to live the newly-found freedom and to succeed in the artistic career.

Four decades ago – A Romanian in Britain (A Story from the Home Office website)

April 23rd, 2011 · No Comments · Books, Diary, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre, especially that I was menaced on a number of fronts: by Securitate operatives masquerading as diplomats keen to end my flouting of socialist order and drag me back to Romania; by a prospective mother-in-law who refused to allow her daughter to marry me unless I accepted British citizenship; and by officials of the British Home Office who assumed that my desire to retain what I saw as my unalienable right of birth, my nationality, might stem from communist loyalties.

Afterwards Lord Goodman decided to champion my cause, writing to the head of the Home Office that I was a

“man of impeccable character clearly determined to belong here and make a significant contribution to our national life.””

In retrospect I hope that I discharged myself honourably of Goodman‘s expectations as I gave generously my expertise in discovering oil and gas for Britain and batting for Britain abroad on the cultural and scientific front, especially in my native country – Romania

QUOTATIONS: How other people see us (1) – Margaret THATCHER

April 10th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Books, PEOPLE, quotations

Interesting insight on her visit to Ceausescu in the mid 1970s: “Margaret Thatcher – the Path to Power” (Harper Collins, London 1995, ISBN 000 255806 8, 656 pages)
I was also shown around a scientific institute specializing in polymer research. My guide was none other than Elena Ceausescu who had already began to induulge a personal fantasy world which matched her husband’ absurdity, if not in human consequences, she was determined to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on polymers. it subsequently emerged that she could barely have distinguished a polymer from a polygon. But behind the defences of translation and communist long-windedness she put up quite a good show.

Book Review: “Once Upon Another Time” by Jessica Douglas-Home

April 4th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Books, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews, Uncategorized

Once upon another time
by Jessica Douglas-Home.
Quotation from page 169-170;
"the Arbuthnots (British Ambassador to Romania, – LC note) second party took place that evening – a lavish buffet for twenty. As with the first one, people sat in huddles whispering on the stairs and in corners. A gaunt professor of architecture entered and for a time seemed frozen by the sight of the two tables piled high with unheard of delicacies. A waiter broke the spell by handing him a glass of wine from a silver tray whereupon he fell on the food like a starving man.

(LC note- Romanians had next to nothing to eat under Ceausescu in the 1980s, except chicken claws).

I have a picture of Plesu and Liicianu stretching their legs out from the deep velvet sofa, arms clasped behind their necks, their eyes glinting amusedly at me, relaxed and at peace with themselves.

Out of Ceausescu’s Hell: a Romanian at Cambridge

February 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE

In 1968, the Romanian geophysicist Constantin Roman defied Communist restrictions and travelled to England on a NATO travel grant. Under Ceausescu’s dictatorship, obtaining a passport was short of a miracle and in the first chapter we are let into the secret of how this was made possible.
I must confess I admired your inventiveness, perseverance and tenacity with which you focused on your goals, the courage you displayed in approaching influential people, without prior introduction, the manner in which you presented logical arguments in obtaining what you were about to achieve

MEDICAL CARE DURING DICTATORSHIP (“My Second University” Two Reviews by Ionel Taranu & Constantin ROMAN

October 19th, 2005 · Comments Off · Books, PEOPLE, Reviews

MEDICAL CARE UNDER DICTATORSHIP (“My Second University” Two Reviews: Ionel TARANU and Constantin ROMAN) “My Second University – memories from Romanian Communist prisons” by Dr. Stanciu Stroia and Dr. Dan Dusleag, (iUniverse Inc., New York, 2005, 271 pages, Index, illustrations, £10.53 ISBN: 0-595-34639-1) THREE GENERATIONS OF MEDICAL DOCTORS UNDER DICTATORSHIP: Dr. Stanciu Stroia was born [...]

A Russian Childhood (Yalta, St. Petersburg, Moscow, London) Memoirs of Tatiana Nancy GAUBERT

June 21st, 2005 · Comments Off · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

Synopsis An Imperial Foundling A Russian Childhood (Yalta, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yalta, and early Womanhood (London, Paris, Dublin) by Tatiana Nancy (“Romanovna”) GAUBERT What would a crocodile on a silver chain, taken for a walk on the streets of St. Petersburg, have in common with a kneeling British ambassador, vowing eternal love to a Russian [...]

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“Moving Here” – a Story of Migration to England

August 27th, 2003 · Comments Off · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

“MOVING HERE” “Moving Here” is the ultimate database of digitised photographs, maps, objects, documents and audio items recording migration experiences of the past 200 years of migrations to England. Contributed by: Constantin Roman http://www.movinghere.org.uk/stories/story12/story12.htm I had started to study English as my fourth foreign language after German and French, which were both spoken in the [...]

“Continental Drift – Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures” – Constantin Roman

February 19th, 2003 · Comments Off · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE

IOP Publishers (Bristol & Philadelphia) 2000. pp. 211 – ISBN 0-7503-0686-6 – – – – – – – – – – – – – Constantin Roman is Romanian Honorary consul in the English university town of Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD for pioneering work in the field of geophysics in 1974. For over [...]

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