Mr Frankenstein

Richard Freeborn was posted by the Foreign Office to the British embassy in Moscow, where he joined what was called the Secretariat. He became an Oxford don and was later appointed chair of Russian Literature at London University. He has interpreted for many major figures, including prime ministers and members of the Supreme Soviet, and travelled widely in the Soviet Union in the immediate post-Stalin period, although in later decades he found he was persona non grata and not granted visas. Richard married his wife Anne, an embassy colleague while in Moscow. He has written studies devoted to modern Russian history, the rise of the Russian novel and what he has called the Russian revolutionary novel. At the heart of his academic interest has been Ivan Turgenev, whose major literary works he has both translated and written about extensively. His translation of Turgenev's play A Month in the Country starred Helen Mirren and John Hurt et al. when it was produced in London and enjoyed great success. Dame Helen then took it to Broadway, where it enjoyed further success. She and John Hurt have left him a very touching, congratulatory memento relating to his translation and their roles in the play.