President Macron has signed a series of energy deals with Kazakhstan in a bid to prise the country away from the Kremlin’s influence and secure nuclear deals vital to reducing Europe’s dependence on Russia.

Harriet Crawley - Harrogate International An Interview with Harriet Crawley - Harrogate International

In 1917 a letter (the Balfour Declaration) by Lord Balfour, the foreign secretary, declared UK support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”; in 1930 Tafari Makonnen was proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia, taking the name Haile Selassie (Might of the Trinity). Germany is considering abandoning its flagship €100 billion future combat jet project with France and joining a rival. When the talks commence he is shocked to find his opposite number is a woman he hasn't seen for over 10 years and Marina Volina broke his heart.

The characters were well built through the novel and I found myself routing for Clive and Marina and thoroughly disliking General Varlamov. It was the remarkable Patricia Highsmith who steered me in the direction of crime/suspense with her book Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. As the political climate stands at this moment in time I think it’s fair to say that the Cold War never really ceased – it just evolved into a modernised version. Crawley deftly plays off the influences of the old world and the modern age against each other in this story.

Harriet Crawley - Crime and Fiction Author - Bitter Lemon Press Harriet Crawley - Crime and Fiction Author - Bitter Lemon Press

My decision was made: I would step way outside my comfort zone and go for broke, set the novel in the present day, at the highest level of government, and make it a clash between the Kremlin and Downing Street. Donald Trump’s eldest son has testified in the fraud case brought against the family firm, acknowledging his leading role in the business but insisting that he relied on the advice of accountants when approving the financial statements that are at the heart of the case.President Macron has signed a series of energy deals with Kazakhstan in a bid to prise the country away from the Kremlin’s.

The Translator by Harriet Crawley | Waterstones

Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to the city to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. Harriet Crawley worked in Moscow for almost twenty years and uses her experience to great effect in this grown-up novel about grown-up characters living on the edge as they make life-and-death decisions.A fluent Russian speaker, Harriet was married to a Russian, and sent her son to state school in Moscow where she worked for almost twenty years in the energy sector. Annual profit forecasts have been lifted by Next for the fourth time in five months after colder weather prompted. Marina is part of Serov's inner circle, but she is embittered by the strain of living on a knife-edge and the impact it has had on her personal life.

The Translator by Harriet Crawley | Book review | The TLS

Brimming with intricate detail on Russia today, it is both moving and terrifying — a compelling combination.The language aspect was something else I found intriguing - I once tried to learn basic Russian as part of my uni course as I studied Russian history and I was terrible at it! an unusual but enthralling blend of a highly topical scenario with an old-fashioned, civilised take on espionage.