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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Journalist (
@thetimes
), author of High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland, to be published July 20, 2023. Pre-order: geni.us/highcaucasus
Joined August 2011
2,142 Following
21.6K Followers

Tom Parfitt’s Tweets

Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
See Professor Gould's work for fascinating insights into the literature of insurgency in the Caucasus, based on deep research and fieldwork
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Rebecca Ruth Gould
@rrgould
Excited to read this new book on Beslan & the Caucasus by @parfitt_tom . Thanks @headlinepg @RosieMargesson @elisejacksonn for sending!
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
‘Bow down your snowy head, submit, O Caucasus, Yermolov comes,’ Pushkin wrote of ruthless Russian commander Alexei Yermolov. (‘I am sorry that Pushkin bloodied the last lines of his tale,’ wrote one horrified critic in a letter to a friend. ‘Poetry is not the ally of butchers.’)
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Alastair Benn
@alastair_benn
A tour-de-force debut in @EngelsbergIdeas by @Tom_deWaal on Pushkin and the fight over his legacy. Covers so much ground - the impotence of the Russian intelligentsia, the many meanings of Pushkin's 'freedom' and whether literature can change the world. engelsbergideas.com/essays/taking-
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
This was very cool. Thanks,
@HughesPeg
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📚 Peggy Hughes 👟 🌱
@HughesPeg
Dragon Hall Social in swing beneath the upturned ribs of the Great Hall! Tonight we’re hearing from Akvilė Kavaliauskaitė & Laimonas Briedis, our current cottage residents via Vilnius City of Literature! Read all about them nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/residencies/
Dragon Hall Social is on!
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
I wager this is fun, considering that fantastically impish essay Richard did about nature writing a while back
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Richard Smyth
@RSmythFreelance
"I sometimes think I came to nature arse-about-face, because I began with books." That's me, in my new book (out Thursday, did I say?). Here's a short thread on a few of the books that shaped my view of nature and wild things when I was a kid. Join in, if you want.
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Tom Parfitt Retweeted
Lana Estemirova🇺🇦
@lanaestemirova
I’m so looking forward to this!!!
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Very chuffed to reveal the cover of my forthcoming memoir (July 20, 2023), High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland. If so inclined (and I would be very grateful), you can steal a march on your friends and pre-order it here: geni.us/highcaucasus
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Tom Parfitt Retweeted
Patrick Walsh
@Walsh_e_Patrick
HIGH CAUCASUS is such a beautifully written, and important, book - the story of how Tom Parfitt, a Moscow correspondent for the Times, was traumatised by covering the Beslan school siege, and how he decided to walk 1,000 miles across the Caucasus mountains to confront his demons.
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Very chuffed to reveal the cover of my forthcoming memoir (July 20, 2023), High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland. If so inclined (and I would be very grateful), you can steal a march on your friends and pre-order it here: geni.us/highcaucasus
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Tom Parfitt Retweeted
Bianca Bexton
@BiancaBexton
Thrilled to be working with
@parfitt_tom
on his beautiful memoir - just look at that cover! High Caucasus is a thoughtful and important book detailing Tom's remarkable 1000 mile walk across the Caucasus mountains.
@Walsh_e_Patrick
@headlinenf
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Very chuffed to reveal the cover of my forthcoming memoir (July 20, 2023), High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland. If so inclined (and I would be very grateful), you can steal a march on your friends and pre-order it here: geni.us/highcaucasus
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
The Ukraine correspondent to end all Ukraine correspondents. Not to be missed by anyone seeking the story from the ground.
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Christopher Miller
@ChristopherJM
I'm thrilled to reveal the cover of my forthcoming book, THE WAR CAME TO US: Life and Death in Ukraine, out July 18 with @BloomsburyBooks. It means a lot to me that the cover image is one by my late friend and the great Ukrainian photographer Maks Levin. linktr.ee/thewarcametous
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Years have passed but the journey stuck with me and I hope it now has extra interest in the context of the Ukraine war, with which the tragic fate of the Caucasus has some parallels. Only some, mind: this is a unique and enchanting place with a flavour all of its own.
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
For me, the walk was a kind of emotional reckoning after witnessing the bloody ending of the 2004 Beslan school siege, but also a dig into the soil from which violence in Russia’s Caucasus has sprouted.
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
High Caucasus is the story of my thousand-mile walk across mountains and steppe between Sochi on the Black Sea and Derbent on the Caspian, including the Russian republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan.
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
My own forthcoming memoir, High Caucasus, also features Natasha and Lana, and the wider story of activists from Nobel Peace Prize laureate
@EnMemorial
in Chechnya and Ingushetia. I'll be making a wee announcement about my book later today...
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Absolutely brilliant news that
@lanaestemirova
's memoir about her unique bond with her mother, the Chechen rights activist Natasha Estemirova, is to be published by
@johnmurrays
. Congratulations, Lana and Patrick!
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Patrick Walsh
@Walsh_e_Patrick
“For me, writing PLEASE, LIVE! is the only way to achieve closure, redemption, and some form of enlightened revenge”… Heartfelt congratulations to Lana Estemirova on agreeing this UK deal for her memoir about life with her exceptional mother, Natalia, with John Murray.
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
As "vranyo" rears its head again as some supposedly masterful infowar tactic, am I right there were folks who pushed back against the idea of unique Russian terms, saying vranyo just means balderdash, toska = melancholy/ennui etc?
@Alexey__Kovalev
was it you?
@michaelidov
?
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
I was told that Shamil Basayev once used the phrase "Annushka already spilled the oil" from The Master and Margarita, but can't find source/context... Any one have any ideas?
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Tom Parfitt Retweeted
Patrick Walsh
@Walsh_e_Patrick
Huge congratulations to you and your brave mother’s memory, Lana A long overdue recognition today from the Nobel Peace Prize committee, and a big hurrah to all colleagues and supporters continuing to fight Memorial’s cause at home and abroad.
@lanaestemirova
@EnMemorial
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Lana Estemirova🇺🇦
@lanaestemirova
My mum was Memorial and Memorial was my mum. She worked tirelessly to help the victims of the Russian war in Chechnya and hold the criminal regime to account. I wish she could be here to share this triumph with her colleagues. But everything we do, we do in her memory.
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Tom Parfitt Retweeted
Lana Estemirova🇺🇦
@lanaestemirova
My mum was Memorial and Memorial was my mum. She worked tirelessly to help the victims of the Russian war in Chechnya and hold the criminal regime to account. I wish she could be here to share this triumph with her colleagues. But everything we do, we do in her memory.
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Tom Parfitt
@parfitt_tom
Nobel recognition of Memorial's brave, unwavering and scrupulous work over many decades long overdue. Especially touching that the committee cited incredible Memorial activist Natalya Estemirova, assassinated in 2009 for doing her job in Chechnya. Natasha, you are not forgotten.
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