A Dark Anniversary, Cyprus, Interview

Hello subscribers!

I’ve just uploaded a new post on to the DT Blog – and as you may have guessed it’s to mark today’s first anniversary of the start of Putin’s war in Ukraine. In fact it’s the first blog post mentioning that war since March last year. I’ve deliberately tried not to dwell on the topic. Still, it has affected me personally, and my book (though I’ve been able to put in a few little updates, including about the war, for the second print run, which should be due soon).

I think this war’s even affected my health. I have a skin condition that started developing around March/April last year and simply doesn’t go away, despite dermatologists’ best efforts. I really wouldn’t be surprised if this is linked to the anxiety the war caused me (see e.g. this and this blog post from the early days of the war). So I have one more personal reason to hope that this war can somehow be ended before too long … though currently it’s not looking good at all.

The photo above is the same as the one used for the new Blog post, and it has also featured on the Blog before, namely in this post from last year. It shows the gigantic Soviet-era Rodina Mat statue in Kyiv, with some gun barrels in the foreground (which are part of a WWII memorial). This was a play with perspective at the time when I took the photo back in 2015. Now you can of course reinterpret it as a war-related composition.
  

The new Blog post also mentions the progress I have made with writing up Cyprus for my main website. For South Cyprus everything is now there, including the chapters about the Mitsero Mines (featured in the previous Blog post), the British colonial-era concentration camp of Kokkinotrimithia and Nicosia (including the infamous Green Line). For North Cyprus I still have some gaps to close, but the important chapter about the fabled ghost town of Varosha is already there, as is the chapter about North Nicosia. The rest will follow very soon.
  

Finally, the new Blog post also mentions an interview (as already flagged in the previous Newsletter) which I did with that guy who took me and my wife to the Mitsero Mines and Kokkinotrimithia. This is now online on a Russian-language website for expats in Cyprus. It also features several photos, including three with me in the frame (not the most flattering, but not too bad either). The article erroneously claims that my book “became a bestseller”, which I wish was true, but unfortunately it isn’t. Though maybe this feature will give sales a bit of a boost. And if you still haven’t got a copy yet … well, shame on you ;-)

The interview was originally conducted in English and has been translated for the Cyprus Butterfly website. So if you do not know Russian you could have it retranslated back into English, e.g. if you’re using the Chrome browser, which incorporates Google Translate (it gets a few things wrong, but is overall not too bad). Or you can read the original English of the interview, which I have now also put on my website (without the photos of the Russian feature, but with extra links ... and no machine translation errors).
  

So much for this time … on this dark day.

Best wishes,

Peter