FEAST OR FAMINE

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I wrote a letter to the country of Georgia and this is what happened next …

I wrote a letter to the country of Georgia, where I have lived for 10 years in its capital, Tbilisi. I wrote about one of its most famous, yet virtually unkown poets outside of Georgia – Galaktion Tabidze. The letter praised not only Galaktioni, but also the well-known translater and academic Professor Innes Merabishvili, who is the Head of the Chair of Translatology in the Faculty of Humanities at Tbilisi State University. She is also the President of the Byron Society of Georgia and the Principal of the Byron School of Tbilisi. She recently published a translation of Galaktion Tabidze’s poems. Galaktion Tabidze is known affectionately as Galaktioni. My marketing expert Tamar Zhghenti contacted Innes Merabishvili. The letter was translated into Georgian by – of course – the great Innes Merabishvili, and published in the Georgian-language newspaper Republic of Georgia on 22 September 2020. It, and Innes, received hundreds of accolades. And then, on 24 September 2020...

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili: book review

The Eighth Life (2019) is set in Berlin from 2006 to 2007, with a return to the year 1900, and the generational history of the Jashi family. The narrator is 32-year-old Niza, who has left her home town of Tbilisi, Georgia, to move to Germany. She is in Berlin in 2006 with her lover Aman Baron. Her sister is dead, leaving a 12-year-old daughter Brilka. Brilka has run away from her dance troupe who were performing in Amsterdam. She has disappeared, and Niza must find her niece. Book 1 is about Ketevan and her chocolatier husband, and his recipe for hot chocolate: ‘The Chocolatier managed to unite the French art of patisserie and traditional Austrian baking with Eastern European opulence.’ Ketevan and the chocolatier have two daughters: Stasia and Christine. In 1900, Niza’s great grandmother Stasia travels to St. Petersburg in Russia with her soldier husband Simon Jashi to his new job, forgoing her dream to learn ballet in Paris. In Russia, Stasia and Simon are ...

Paris rain

MARTINA NICOLLS Website Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Grey Heron in the morning in the middle of Paris

September 2020 Paris – from Vine to Wine

September in Paris, the Botanical Garden is celebrating the domestication of the grape vine – more than 5,000 years ago. A long process of selection and hybridization led to the creation of several thousand varieties grown for their fruit, suitable for winemaking or consumption. In September, grapes begin to mature, depending on the region and variety, the harvest can take place between August and October. In 2020, due to a particularly hot summer in France, the grapes matured earlier than usual. At the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, vines can be found in the Ecological Garden. They include the Hamburg muscat, the Fontainebleau chasselas, and American hybrids such as noah and baco, whose winemaking was banned in France since the 1930s! Also, in the Vellum Collection of the National Museum of Natural History is a historical source for the study of vines. Almost all of the thirty or more representations of grape varieties are painted with an anonymous hand, dating from ...