Tolstoy

I have just realised that the entry I made this morning says Saturday, but it was written on Sunday so that is a bit confusing, probably because I still have this computer on UK time. I also have one phone on UK time, one on Kyrgys time.  Anyway I am feeling a bit more human, but have only slept, read and pottered so wanted to share this extract from the book on Tolstoy that I am reading:

"Armed with Arnold's letter (Thomas Arnold), Tolstoy set off for the schools.  It shows how much he valued his days with the London children that he kept mementoes for the rest of his life."  (Wilson 88, p162) So what we are attempting having visitors to Bilimkana and hoping that will inspire some of the children is old hat.  Tolstoy also later went onto write apparently a very good ABC for the children in his family and school.

Apparently in his early days Tolstoy had not worried too much about the serfs, but according to his biographer at that time the level of slavery in Russia was greater than that in the US. Having recently read The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, which is about slavery, that is quite a sobering thought as conditions in America were so horrendous.Whilst reading about the laws at the time in the states where merely helping a slave try and escape a family could be fined huge sums of money I was however, reminded of our own immigration laws where even innocent drivers can be fined if a migrant stows away on their lorries.