15th August 1971

C/O British embassy

Boulevard Marshal Tolbukhin

Sofia

15/08/71

Dear Mum and Dad

Thank you for the letter and the photographs. It was lovely to see you all, especially the new baby. It is the only photo I have of Nanny. I must say I thought mum looked very tired and I hope she is recovered from looking after the G’s. I have not had much to write about lately. Tony arrived back on the 3^rd. He had been ill in England with enteritis and appeared to recover but had a relapse this weekend and I had to starve him for 24 hours. He seems much better now.

Last weekend A.L.and V.L. arrived from Prague and they have been staying with us all last week. We had some good evenings talking about Czechoslovakia and the old times. They have gone to the black sea for a week and we were hoping to join them for the weekend but Tony’s bad stomach prevented us. We are sitting on the balcony in very hot sunshine, Tony is reading while I type this.

We are looking forward to our holiday in Turkey and have been looking through the brochures Tony bought back from England and planning our route. It looks an interesting country full of history and ancient remains. There are some good camp sits called Mocamps run by petrol stations.

There are more ICL people her now as Terry C is back with his Robin Scimitar car which is really beautiful and Anton B. and Frano K. are here with their wives and children. So we should have a bit more company in the next few months. We have not been out much lately, only a walk in the mountains last weekend to sun bathe and a few meals out in folk restaurants. We could not go to the film because V.L. being a Czech national would not be allowed in.

We have looked at the films we took in Greece but they are not very good. We did not take enough time in filming so there a few disjointed shots of this and that. I shall look forward to seeing David’s films of Marc’s birth when I come home. Perhaps he could sell them on for a few hundred pounds to an ante natal clinic. David and Paula could turn their children into an advantage as TV stars.

I hope Paula is able to cope and that the baby is well behaved. Is he still going to be an experimental baby? I thought having a Russian second name was in the hope he would be a good obedient party member and do as he is told.

No more news now. I hope I shall be able to come and see you before the end of the year but our future plans are very hazy at present. I expect Nanny is living it up in Rhyll at present, we hope she has a good time. I hope Auntie Dorothy has a good holiday in Coventry. Lots of love to everyone

Love

Gillian and Tony

During this period we experienced several brushes with both the normal police and the secret variety. For some time now we had been aware that we were being watched and our movements logged, and they were none too discrete about it. We also suspected that our apartment was bugged (the occasional buzzing from a point in our lounge wall was something of a give-away). For hours on end a large black Russian Volga (GAZ 21 Saloon car made in Gorky) with Government Ministry number plates would also sit in our car park. Inside there were always two men in dark suits watching our flat, relieved from time to time by a new shift.

We would also receive anonymous silent phone calls from time to time to check on whether we had left home of not. During these silent calls we did note that we could hear typewriters clacking away in the background. Whoever was calling us knew the appointments we had set up with customers and appeared to be checking that we were not fitting in some other detour. We are not sure who told us, but somehow we had learnt that there was a feature of the Sofia telephone system at that time that if the phone hand-set was not replaced, the person calling could not use their phone.

So one morning when the phone rang and we got the silent treatment, we told them that we were not going to replace the hand-set until they spoke to us – still silence, so we went off for breakfast. Half an hour later we returned to the phone and asked if anyone was there; still no response. But on the third time of asking a timid voice, speaking English with a Bulgarian accent said, ‘Please will you replace the phone’. After that the calls ceased for quite a while. We assume they had a schedule to follow checking up on various foreign visitors and we had found a way to disrupt the secret police timetable.

The authorities were very sensitive about revealing the locations of what they considered ‘strategic’ assets; power stations, electricity pylons, hydro electric schemes & so on. As a result such places were never shown on the road maps that we could purchase in local shops. We were out for a drive one Sunday afternoon following a road shown on our map that went through a large forested area. However we suddenly saw to our left a really superb large lake, nowhere to be found on the map. Just the spot for our picnic. We were apparently miles from anywhere and no towns or villages were shown on our map. We had parked our car and walked the short distance to the lake shore, no more than 30 meters, when we saw the surreal sight of a uniformed policeman emerge from the trees. He ushered us away & sent us on our travels. We can only assume that all such places, even in the middle of nowhere, were constantly guarded.

Back in Sofia, the following weekend, a major football match was scheduled at the stadium not far from our flat. This was the first time we had been made aware of a match and so we wandered down to the main approach road just out of interest. I’m sure it would not happen today, but back then any public demonstration was frowned upon and to our great surprise all the football fans were walking sedately along the road with not so much a cheer or a football rattle breaking the peace. Needles to say there were plenty of uniformed and plain clothed police around. A short way further along the main road we saw a police car towing a large caravan, parked on a wide stretch of pavement. Out of the caravan came several policemen who watched the crowd and every so often grabbed a young man with long hair or a young woman wearing a mini-skirt. The young men were forcibly taken inside the caravan and emerged minutes later with their hair roughly cut short, and the women would exit with a very large blue indelible ink stamp (about 6 by 9 inches) impressed on the seat of their skirt. We couldn’t read what the stamp said but we guess it was not complimentary. 

There was no tolerance of new western ideas of young people’s dress fashions or hair length preferences (nor pop music as it was called then nor any other ‘subversive’ western trends). The police saw to that too.

1st August 1971

C/O British embassy

Boulevard Marshal Tolbukhin

Sofia

01/08/71

Dear Mum and Dad,

I am having my usual Sunday doing all the jobs I have not had time to do during the week. Tony has telexed to say he will be setting off sometime this weekend so I am looking forward to him arriving sometime next week. Life is very dull without him. It seems he has been ill with enteritis last week. I hope he has been well looked after.

I expect you will be coming back from Belton today and I am awaiting news of Paula and the baby. I hope mum still has a job.

I went up to Russe on Thursday and had a very pleasant day with the customer there. The plane back was delayed by a thunderstorm and I did not get back home until 1.00 am. I am quite independent now travelling on the trams buses and taxis.

On Friday we had a farewell party for one of the engineers, Dick A. who has been here about a year with his Bulgarian wife. We all went out to a restaurant outside Sofia that served fish on a tile. It was a lovely evening.

Yesterday Terry C invited me to dinner with his Bulgarian girlfriend Tanya. I spent all afternoon there not knowing that John H. was also phoning me to go out that evening. So you can see how my friends make sure I don’t get too lonely. In fact there was a party that evening at the American embassy and I met some very interesting people from the American and French Embassy. I never feel totally at home with the embassy people but one can’t choose your friends here and make the best of what is sent.

I had a telex from Andrea.L and V.L saying they are coming a week earlier than expected, arriving next Saturday. I am really looking forward to their visit as we get on really well with them.

I am constantly listening to the radio here; the world service is my companion. I shall go to the film tonight. Last week it was Barbarella which I had seen before so I hope it will be a good one tonight.

Love Tony and Gillian

The escape to the West was always appreciated after a time in Bulgaria and we seemed to be very good at wrangling trips to UK or Berlin to get away. We were much more aware of being monitored by the secret police and the antagonism of the local people . In a traffic jam people would scratch our car with a key as they passed and it was quite normal to have your wind screen wipers and hubcaps stolen or even your wheels. We did not make friends with any Bulgarians apart from Vasil our fixer and Dancha our cleaning lady. Vasil took us one day to a village outside Sofia where his grandmother lived. She kindly cooked us a traditional Bulgarian meal called kavarma- lamb or pork stewed in the oven with peppers potatoes and aubergenes. It was served with homemade pickles and fresh bread. It was a lovely meal.

In some ways the authorities had a very un-communist attitude. We had one experience of trying to go the Hotel Sofia night club and not being allowed in because our country Manager Terry C was not wearing a tie but one of those polo necked shirts which were in fashion in the west. Gill took the cloth belt off her trouser suit (another 70’s icon) and Terry used it as a tie.

At the time we were living in Sofia there was a great deal of fear amongst the general public, fear of being reported to the authorities for some minor misdemeanour, and fear at not being seen to be towing the quite extreme ‘Party Line’. At this height of the Cold War, Bulgaria was strongly aligned to Russia. We naively thought that to become a Communist Party member was simply a matter of applying; not so. We were told that only about 8% of people had been allowed to join the Party, and that took years of toadying, politicking and networking in order just to be considered. The rewards once you were  a member were significant, not necessarily in terms of wealth so much as privileges, job opportunities, promotion, access to hard currency and travel. For example, we came across special exclusive holiday resorts in the mountains and at the Black Sea with access guarded by police that were reserved just for Party Members. Party membership would lead to better housing, the possibility of a state car, and many other ‘perks’. If you had a party car you had special number plates. Police on traffic duty could recognise them and wave them forward at a junction or even manually change the traffic light so party members got priority.

29th July 1971

Sofia

29/07/71

Dear Mum and dad

Just a short note to let you know I am well etc. I am giving this to Terry .C. our country manger to post in England so it should reach you quickly.

I was half asleep when you phoned last Saturday but of course was overjoyed at the news of a baby boy Marc Ivor, and thought about you all weekend wondering what you were doing in Belton.

I have been working quite hard since I got back so I have not had much time to feel lonely. Also as usual all the ICL gang are here so I have had plenty of company at lunch times and been out some evenings as well. I am really missing a car but do quite well getting two ICL people with cars to chauffeur me round. I am also getting competent on the buses and trams. The VW is in the customs compound and only Tony can get it out. J H came back from holiday and says I can stay with her if I get lonely. I had about 5 colleagues round last night chatting about the usual things- work, marriage etc. I can never understand why so many people are unhappily married.

I am going to Russe for the day tomorrow so I will have to get up early as the plane leaves at 7.50 am. It always makes a nice change to visit Russe as the people are so nice there.

I have been trying to persuade Terry C to go riding with me at the weekend but I don’t know if I will succeed. I expect I shall go swimming as there is a diplomatic pool we are allowed to use and go to the films at the embassy.

I expect Tony should be back sometime next week but I am not sure how long it will take him driving by himself. If you get the sack mum you and dad could come back with him!

I hope Nanny has a lovely holiday and that Paula David and family are all well.

Love Gillian and Tony

We were thrilled with the news of a new nephew and glad we had the phone at the flat. I was on my own when my mother rang as Tony was on a trip to the UK.

There was a complicated procedure we had to go through with the cars to finally get British number plates. Because we bought them tax free we had to own them for three years as non UK residents before they could be brought back into the UK system. The Dutch export plates, issued when we bought the car, expired after twelve months. We then had to go to England with the car and obtain British export plates known as Q plates because their first Licence plate letter was a ‘Q’. I guess this was one of the reasons Tony had taken the Daf to the UK, but how had he managed to leave the VW in the custom car park in Sofia?

The letter suggests Gill had been in the UK too. Tony must have flown to the UK, leaving the VW at the airport. Gill must have driven the Daf there and then flown home leaving Tony to sort out the Q plates and drive back in the Daf. We got used to these complicated  procedures and it did enable us to buy two new cars very cheaply- something we could never afford if we stayed in the UK. ICL were very generous with their expenses and paid our rent and many other living expenses.

2nd May 1971

C/O British embassy

Boulevard Marshal Tolbukhin

Sofia

02/05/71

Dear Mum and Dad,

I am very sad that my trip to England was cancelled. Still we will both be home in July and see you then and the new baby I hope. Has Paula heard if it will be one or two yet? We have just come back from our weekend at the black sea. We ‘did’ Bulgaria in true style driving over a thousand kilometres in the last few days.  First of all we visited our customer in Russe which is north of Bulgaria on the Danube. Here we had a very pleasant surprise after our meeting on Thursday (Tony is distracting me by dancing round as I type to our Mongo Jerry LP) the director said he would show us round Russe. He had hired a car and took us all round the sights finally ending up with dinner at a little fish restaurant by the river. Then on the Friday before we left he presented us with a miniature painted barrel like the one we bought for Dad- altogether a very nice customer.

The countryside in the interior is really beautiful, full of spring flowers and blossoms, wild lilac and laburnum. We found the coast a little disappointing. First of all the scenery is very like England. The resorts that have been developed are just a lot of big modern hotels on a sandy beach miles away from anywhere. We probably got a bad impression of these places as Golden Sands and Sunny Beach were almost deserted and there is nothing more depressing than a holiday resort out of season. Also the weather was bad on the coast, cold winds and fog. The other off putting thing was the Black sea really did look black and murky. You felt if you swam in it your skin would turn black too. We felt it might be good to spend a weekend there later on in the year as the hotels and air fares are so cheap. We did see some interesting things there, orchids growing wild, two stoats, a natural petrified forest of fossil wood, several storks and two snakes- dead I am glad to say. I think we have a good idea of where the best places are to visit now.

We are looking forward to our holiday in Greece now as I guess you are your trip to USA. We still aim to go to Turkey later in the year and have checked with the British embassy and they say it should be OK. We will avoid the trouble spots and stick to the coast.

We have just been for a walk in the park and spent a happy hour watching the other people walk by and commenting on them. I expect we shall go to the film at the embassy tonight, we have become regulars now.

I am sorry I have not written to Paula lately but I am finding it difficult to find time to write as we are so busy. Last Tuesday we went to dinner with the first secretary of the British embassy and Next Friday we are going to dinner with the head of ILO here. In between we are always entertaining ICL visitors and we have had rather a lot of them lately. As well as this we have our trips to Austria and the Bulgarian coast plus the odd car cleaning session.

Talking of cars the VW now seems to be behaving itself and the only trouble we have with it concerns the alarm we had fitted in Austria to stop anyone breaking in. If it is tampered with at all the horn goes off. We set it as usual when we were in Russe and went to bed. About 12.30 some youths were passing by and accidentally set off the alarm. Instead of leaving the car they were fascinated with this and started rocking the car and leaning on the bonnet. The noise soon woke us and Tony had to get a policeman before order was restored. The alarm is burglar proof but not Bulgar proof. Tony says that last pun deserves a second sheet of paper but I am not sure I can fill it up. I will continue tomorrow.

Monday

We have been invited to a party tonight so I better finish this quickly and post it or it will never arrive. The film last night was not very good, an American comedy- need I say more?

I hope the camping carnet arrives before our holiday but I think it should.

I hope you had a nice time in Belton on May Day, we thought of you watching the maypole dancing.

I must close now and get ready

Love as usual

Happy birthday to Nanny for tomorrow and I am still looking out for a few things to buy her.

Love from both of us

Gillian and Tony

The ICL computer customer in Russe was the local government, housed in a grand stone ‘Stalinist Realism’ building, fronted with large columns & statues of heroic workers nearby. Being quite remote from Sofia they had gained little attention by our staff in the past and were delighted to have new technical support staff visiting. We had found people in Sofia often quite unpleasant to any foreigner in their midsts. We were regularly ‘blanked’ by our immediate neighbours on the occasions when we were not sworn at, and had random malicious damage to our cars (unlike the locals’ cars). Seeing our foreign car number plates, in a city centre traffic jam it would not be uncommon to have pedestrians step of the pavement and kick the side of our car. The indifference and shear deliberate awkwardness of bureaucrats was also difficult to stomach at times (but as previously mentioned was not unknown at the British Embassy either). But not so in Russe; the people we met were a delight, both at work and in public places. They were very friendly, courteous and eager to talk. One quite alarming story we were told by an old lady in Russe was that a few years earlier, during an especially harsh winter, the Danube had frozen over. As a result the already hungry wolves from the Romanian forests on the opposite bank came across the ice in packs to find food in Russe.

After leaving Russe on this occasion, and travelling to the Black Sea area, we visited Varna. No progress was made on the Elliot 803 computer still in its packing cases. I remember ‘the Fox’ at the ICC installation in Sofia saying that he had been brought up in Varna. He had very brown teeth we recall. On this trip to Varna we discovered that in those days almost everyone living in the Varna region had brown teeth due to the high level of natural fluoride in the local water. It naturally colours the teeth, but excessive exposure to fluoride also induces greater decay by breaking down the tooth enamel. Not a lot of people know that!

At the embassy dinner we remember the husband going out to make the coffee and the sound of violent banging in the kitchen. ‘Don’t worry’ said his wife. ‘He’s just killing the cockroaches’

There is a big gap in the letters because at this time we had a wonderful holiday Greece and Crete. We spent the first week on the mainland and drove to Athens via Philipi and the plains of Marathon. After a few days seeing the sites in the capitol, we drove to a camp site on the other side of the country  on a Peaceful lagoon. We were able to visit Delphi and Mycene from there and were impressed with the Corinth canal. Then we went on to Crete by boat from Pireas.  Crete was very underdeveloped at the time with only Agias Nikolaos being a tourist destination. We stayed at Chania, Rhetimon Agias Nikolaos and Heraklion and visited many of the Minoan sites and museums. We found ample reading material about Sir Arthur Evans and his excavations at Knossos. Gill had been fascinated by Crete after reading mary Renaults book ‘A Bull from the Sea’ as a teenager. There were few tourists and the road system was only developed in the North of the island. In the South we found colonies of hippies living in Cretian villages in bunk beds. We drove back to Rhetimon along unmade up roads with only the occasional goat or donkey for company stopping to ask directions at a village with no electricity. An old man bought out an ancient map with hardly any roads on it and tried to tell us it was too far to travel in one evening. He had probably only ever gone there by donkey.

We also visited the cave of Zeus in the central plateaux. A guide came and suggested we might need his services. He was an old man and we took pity on him. The first thing he did was buy two candles and some old newspapers. We followed him to the cave entrance to find there was no lights or steps in the cave and we had to scramble down a near vertical slope with only the candle light to guide us. When we reached the bottom the guide lit the newspaper and threw it in the air to give us a view of the size and complexity of the cave. When it was excavated many artifacts from the Minoan culture were found including statutes of the female godess with snakes writhing round her arms and the double heading axe symbol of the royal Minoan kings. The cave had definitely been a Minoan shrine but I guess earlier gods than Zeus were worship there. On our return to England  made a point of visiting the Ashmolean museum in Oxford.

The VW was working smoothly at last and we were beginning to rebuild confidence in its abilities.

22nd April 1971

C/O British embassy

Boulevard Marshal Tolbukhin

Sofia

22/4/71

Dear Mum and Dad,

Just a short note to tell you what my plans are for May. I shall be going to Russe in Northern Bulgaria on Thursday and Friday 29^th and 30^th April. I shall try and get a ticket to come to the UK on Saturday from Sofia via Frankfurt.  In this case I will be home Saturday evening.

However if for any reason the plane from Russe is delayed on Friday I may miss my flight on Saturday as it leaves at 8.30 in the morning. Tomorrow I will do some shopping for your birthday. I have already bought a little something for Christopher and Nicola in Austria.

I hope Paula and David had a good time in the Isle of Wight.

Will see you soon

Lots of Love

Gillian and Tony

The visit to Russe was quite an experience. At Sofia Airport we were one of the first to check in for the flight and waited patiently near the door to the tarmac. When the flight was announced and the doors opened, all the passengers raced across the runway to the waiting Antonov 24. A small step-ladder had been lowered from the fuselage door and the passengers, now in a great bulge at the foot of the steps, pushed & shoved to get on. By now we were at the back of the queue and watched in surprise at the tussle on the steps as a short dumpy middle aged lady in bulky traditional costume, carrying a live chicken upside-down by its legs, pushed a business man out of the way to get on the plane. An orderly queue was unheard of at that time in Sofia.

The plane, a Russian built Antonov 24 with two turbo prop engines, had its 45-50 seats fully occupied once we were finally seated. Our destination of the city of Russe on the Danube in the north east was about an hour away, but didn’t have a commercial airport. We were to land at a military air base some way outside Russe. Strict instructions were issued that we were not allowed to take photographs or notes on arrival at the airfield. Normally, I was told, any military activity would be suspended for the arrival of this commercial flight. However, as we coasted in a group of Russian Mig jet fighters on a parallel runway were practicing ‘bumps’ landings (landing, taking off immediately, circling in turn, and then repeating the process over and over again). We were all hustled of the plane at top speed into a waiting military coach, with blinds drawn, and taken to a large corrugated iron shed where our documents were inspected. Then on to Russe by rickety bus.

Learning to fight your way onto planes and taxis left its scar. On a trip to the Uk, Gill found herself being tutted at as she jumped to the front of the queue at Euston Station when the barrier to the platform was raised. She looked up to see the British in an orderly line making comments like ‘Did you see that? She was behind me.’