How were you introduced to British author John le Carre?
While on a visit to Moscow, the author, whose real name is David Cornwell, met a famous Abkhazian weight-lifter and businessman, who, on learning that David wanted to write a book dealing with Caucasian themes, urged him to get in touch with me. In due course, a fax arrived from David asking if he could consult with me on a new novel. We invited him to visit our home in Yorkshire, so the whole family could meet him. He arrived and entertained us with his stories of encounters in Moscow (and more widely, e.g. with Yasser Arafat) and a wonderful gift for mimicry. He explained that he had originally intended to write the novel, which eventually came out as ‘Our Game’, against the backdrop of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. However, it struck him that, with so many ethnic players in the region, his readers might find it too difficult to cope with those distinctions. This persuaded him to use the Ossetian-Ingush conflict in the North Caucasus instead. He consulted myself and at least two o
