Comrades, Concubines and Lovers
by Graham HunterPublish: Apr 25, 2020Biographies & MemoirsBook Overview
For years I have been telling my travel stories to friends at dinner parties, many of whom thought they were too incredulous to be true but most of them telling me that I must write a book. Well here it is, in more detail than I have ever dared to give before, describing a period from the 1980s when the world was a very different place to what it is now. Some of my stories could never be repeated as countries have changed, borders have been shifted and leaders toppled. In a world where information technology gives us instant access to world events as they happen, I describe a period where some International telephone calls had to be booked 24 hours in advance and once inside some countries, my colleagues would not know where I was or what I was doing until I came out. The telex, cumbersome and noisy, was the main means of international communication. My chapters jump around from country to country as I did but what I have tried to achieve is to show the incredible differences in lifestyles and customs, some of which got me into deep trouble. From the Far East where everything was available to the depths of the Iron Curtain where people had to queue for hours for a loaf of bread, I have tried to describe little details that would be impossible to know unless you were there. One innocent social faux pas nearly had me staying in China to get married!I have enjoyed the company of some of the most beautiful girls in the world and fell hopelessly in love with one from behind the Iron Curtain, so much so that I proposed to her not knowing whether this was possible or whether I could get her out if the marriage was allowed to happen. My struggle with the Soviet Authorities and the KGB lasted nearly two years and often seemed an impossible task.
I ate food that would make you shudder, from “cow’s appendix soup with baby birds” to fried fish where the head was still alive watching you eat it! Due to the large number of flights I was making it was inevitable that I would experience some scary moments, many of which I have described in some detail which will make a lot of nervous fliers queasy.
Every story in this book is true, only the names have changed. I hope that you will share my excitement and emotions as I take you through my personal experiences in my travels around the world from the 1980’s and beyond.
