Tag: history

Throwback Thursday: A Countess in Limbo by Olga Hendrikoff & Sue Carscallen

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ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme originally created by Renee at It’s Book Talk.  It’s designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago.

I recently took part in the blog tour for A Romanov Empress by C. W. Gortner, the fictionalised story of the life of Maria Feodorovna, mother of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia.    Whilst reading the book, it reminded me of a fascinating memoir I read in 2017 by a woman who lived through some of that turbulent period in Russian history.  Called A Countess in Limbo: Diaries in War & Revolution, it recounts the experiences of Countess Olga “Lala” Hendrikoff based on her personal journals collected and translated by her great niece, Sue Carscallen.  To read a wonderful interview with Sue about her memories of Olga and the process of writing the book, click here.

A Countess in Limbo was published in November 2016 by Archway Publishing and you can find purchase links below.

CountessAbout the Book

Countess Olga “Lala” Hendrikoff was born into the Russian aristocracy, serving as lady-in-waiting to the empresses and enjoying a life of great privilege. But on the eve of her wedding in 1914 came the first rumours of an impending war – a war that would change her life forever and force her to flee her country as a stateless person with no country to call home.  Spanning two of the most turbulent times in modern history—World War I in Russia and World War II in Paris – Countess Hendrikoff’s journals demonstrate the uncertainty, horror, and hope of daily life in the midst of turmoil. Her razor-sharp insight, wit, and sense of humour create a fascinating eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution and the occupation and liberation of Paris.

Format: ebook (337 pp.)                           Publisher: Archway Publishing
Published: 3rd November 2016             Genre: Memoir, History, Non-Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find A Countess in Limbo on Goodreads

My Review

I found these journals absolutely fascinating and I was amazed how a woman could live through such upheaval, struggle, loss and privation and still provide such an objective commentary on events, managing to see the good – and bad – on both sides.

In the first section, the young Olga recounts some of her experiences living in Russia at the outbreak of World War I.  There are touching scenes, such as when she and her mother witness the departure of her younger brother to join the army. ‘To the strains of martial music, the train, illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun, started pulling away from the platform and soon vanished in the evening darkness.  With long-repressed tears flowing without measure, my mother and I stood on the platform for a few more minutes.’

Olga did not keep journals throughout her life – or at least, none remain – so there are gaps where only her great niece’s research can try to provide welcome answers.  One such mystery is the circumstances around the ending of her marriage after only three years.

The sections of the book containing the journals Olga Hendrikoff kept during World War 2, covering the onset of war, the occupation of France and its liberation, I found particularly compelling.  Throughout there is a sense of incredulity that nations should so quickly repeat the mistakes of history.  ‘Another war with Germany seems incredible to me when no-one has yet forgotten the last one.’  Later she observes: ‘I often wake up in the morning thinking I have had a bad dream – the war, the departure of friends and relatives…  The first few days after the war was declared, it was if I was stunned.  I could not bring myself to believe that the country I live in is really at war.’

Olga documents the daily struggle to find food, fuel to keep warm and employment so that items only available on the thriving black market can be purchased.  She vividly describes how the German advance into France provokes the desperate flight of people.  ‘The route nationale is still clogged with refugees who make use of any means of locomotion: men on bicycles, women on foot pushing baby carriages, babies in wheelbarrows pulled like trailers by bicycles, mule- or horse-drawn carriages, strollers…in a word, anything on wheels, anything that rolls, has been mobilised for the exodus.’

The liberation of Paris brings no end to the food shortages, power cuts and daily struggle.  It also brings something worse – reprisals against those deemed to have been collaborators.  ‘In the troubled times we are going through, alas, the spirit of personal vengeance is naturally given free rein.’

Olga becomes one of hundreds of thousands stateless émigrés, in her case unable to return to Russia following the revolution and its transformation into the Soviet Union.   However, she never loses her affection for her homeland, which she looks back on fondly.  ‘Would it suddenly be possible to go back to your own country and see Russian forests again, the rivers you knew as a child, the landscapes you still hold in your heart?’ In the end, economic pressures force her to leave France and, since a return to Russia is impossible, she embarks for America where she spent the remainder of her long life.

Countess Hendrikoff was clearly a remarkable woman with wit, intelligence, resilience, compassion for others and a relentless determination to survive.  It is wonderful that her journals survive in order that modern readers can share her experiences and her admirable outlook on life.  There is so much more that I could mention about this book but I will simply urge you to read it for yourself.  One final quotation, should you need more persuading: ‘All war seems absurd to me anyway.  The victors often lose in the exchange, and the vanquished think only of revenge.’

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and publishers, Archway Publishing, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Enthralling, moving, inspirational

Try something similar… The Romanov Empress by C. W. Gortner (read my review here)

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CarscallenAbout the Authors

Olga Hendrikoff was born in 1892 in Voronezh, Russia, and attended the famous Smolny Institute. In 1914, she married Count Peter Hendrikoff just as World War I began.  In the ensuing years, Hendrikoff lived in Constantinople, Rome, Paris, and Philadelphia. She spent her last 20 years in Calgary. She died in 1987.

Sue Carscallen spent 20 years with Olga Hendrikoff before her great aunt’s passing in 1987.  Carscallen stumbled upon Hendrikoff’s diaries hidden in a trunk at her great aunt’s Calgary home.  Over time she unraveled the mysteries hidden in the manuscripts, travelling to France and Russia to supplement her research into Hendrikoff’s life.  Today, Carscallen resides in Calgary.

Website | Facebook ǀ  Goodreads

From Page to Screen: Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten

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About the Book: Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten

May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away.   Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a sceptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people?

In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to ‘We shall fight on the beaches’; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how 25 days helped make one man an icon.

Using new archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It’s a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.

Read my review of the book here.

About the Film: Darkest Hour (2017)

Darkest Hour is directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten based on his own book, Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink.  It stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill and Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill with a supporting cast made up of the cream of British acting talent.  The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Makeup and Hairstyling as well as being nominated in three other categories.  Gary Oldman also won a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.

More information about the film can be found here.

Book v Film

Like the book, the film concentrates on the few weeks in May 1940 when the British Government faced swift German advances into Belgium and the Netherlands, the prospect of the capitulation of France, the possible entry into the war of Italy as an ally of Germany and the loss of the British Expeditionary Force pinned down in Dunkirk.  It dramatizes some of Churchill’s most famous speeches both to the House of Commons and to the Nation and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in finding the emotional power of them still as great as they must have been to people who listened to them at the time.

The film uses the character, Elizabeth Layton (played by Lily James), who was one of Churchill’s personal secretaries between 1941–1945, to give the viewer a close-up view of Churchill, including idiosyncrasies such as emerging from his bath disrobed and breakfasting on whisky and soda.   We see her taking dictation from Churchill as he works on his speeches, constantly drafting and redrafting until he’s happy with them.

What I particularly liked about the film is the tender portrayal of the relationship between Winston and Clementine Churchill.    It left me with a real sense of the vital role Clementine played behind the scenes, providing moral support and encouragement to Winston when necessary, offering the family life that allowed him respite from the cares of state, as well as gently chiding him about his rudeness and lavish expenditure.

There were a couple of scenes that made me remember I was watching a feature film such as a scene where Churchill uses an unusual (for him) form of transport to get a sense of what the people of London feel about the calls from Halifax and others in the War Cabinet to consider a negotiated peace.  However, what it did show is the true courage and resilience displayed by Londoners during the War and, particularly, during the Blitz.

Across the board, the acting performances were terrific and the period detail seemed spot on from the costumes, to the hair and make-up, to the scenes in the War Rooms, Buckingham Palace and Chartwell, Churchill’s family home.  All these details give a visual sense of the wartime atmosphere that it is difficult for a book to recreate (although there are some fabulous photo’s in the book).

The Verdict

The book has fascinating detail drawn from contemporary sources – minutes of meetings, letters, diary entries – about the meetings of key players in the War Cabinet and the conversations that were taking place behind the scenes.   It also provides the reader with biographical detail about Winston Churchill and his chief opponent, Lord Halifax, which is absent from the film.  On the other hand, the film highlights the role of Clementine in supporting Winston during this difficult period whereas she is largely absent from the book.

Purely from an entertainment point of view, I would say the film wins, not least because of Gary Oldman’s superb Oscar winning performance.  However, for those interested in the period and wanting more background information, the book makes fascinating reading.  I liked the fact that some dialogue between Churchill and Halifax the author imagines at one point in the book made it into the screenplay and final film.

What do you think?  Have you read the book or seen the film?