Books & Poetry

In June 1971, eight-year-old Marina Aidova received a letter from a 71-year-old antiquarian bookseller called Harold Edwards and his wife Olive. They wished her happy birthday and signed off: ‘With love from Newbury, Berks, England.’ The magical properties of this formula can’t be underestimated. For Marina lived in Kishinev, the capital of Moldavia, a landlocked chunk of the Soviet Union sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. Her father Slava was a political prisoner, which meant she and her mother Lera led an austere, isolated existence: friends
were too scared to contact them, knowing their home and phone to be under KGB surveillance.

Harold and Olive were responding to an Amnesty International letter-writing campaign, and deliberately addressed letters to Marina to put the censors off the scent. But it was Lera who took up the correspondence, which continued until Harold’s death in 1988. ‘From Newbury With Love’ collects nearly all the letters (many were intercepted and never reached their destination) and is one of the most moving books you’ll ever read – a powerful tribute to the far-reaching effect a single act of kindness can have, and a window into a friendship which, while it may initially have seemed improbable, rapidly surmounted cultural and linguistic barriers to become the most natural, obvious thing in the world. The tone is always careful and coded – they never knew who might be reading – but also emotionally declarative and fiercely intellectually engaged.  

The two parties exchanged photos and gifts – especially books and magazines: Harold was passionate about Russian literature, Lera keen to read Western fiction – but never met. In an odd sort of way they never needed to. The bond they forged in the letters was so tight and intimate, it might have been compromised by a physical encounter.    

The year after Harold’s death, the Iron Curtain raised itself spectacularly. But it barely needs saying that the Aidovs have their equivalents in oppressive regimes across the world. All three Aidovs and the Edwards’ children will be present at a special Amnesty event on Thursday September 7 at the Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, EC2. (See Poetry & events listings for more details.)