Letters from St. Petersburg

I bought this a long time ago, interested in St Petersburg, having travelled through there a number years before. It is written by an Australian author who was, before her travel to St Petersburg, a curator at an art gallery in Australia. Published in 2004, it is reasonable to assume her time in Russia was a year or two prior.

Given the authors involvement in the arts, this book, and her travels had an arts focus, but mainly because she had a mutual friend with the person who was to ‘host' her in Russia. The people she most came into contact with worked in the arts, or were artists of some kind. However, it wasn't highbrow, and most of the mentions of Russian art and writers etc did not require an in-depth knowledge to maintain the narrative.

In fact, the author concentrates much more on the people and the interaction with people throughout the book than the art and architecture - although they are heavily present in the background, and if you knew more about these things you might draw more out of the book than I did on those subjects. For the duration of her three month stay, she was immersed in Russia - with only Russian people, and while she didn't learn more than the basics of the language, she got by with a few friends who translated for her.

The writing is honest - it praises where praise is due and is critical when appropriate. She writes well and captures the essence of St Petersburg and of the Russian people (even though she was way more in depth than the short time I spent there as a tourist). Hammond does well to provide a simple relevance to the historical periods of the USSR and Russia, where appropriate in the book, without spoiling the narrative with in-depth explanations.

I enjoyed this more than I expected to when I picked it up from my shelf. Always nice to be reminded of something from a place visited. A brief walk down Nevsky Prospect, the awesome 1904 Singer Sewing Machine building.

Four stars for me.
**