Twitching the Iron Curtain In Central Europe and London: Memoirs 1972-1984

Book excerpt: Twitching the Iron Curtain is the fourth volume of Martin Nicholson's memoirs. It takes the author's career and family life from 1972 to 1984, following the abrupt end of his posting in Moscow in a flurry of expulsions and counter-expulsions of diplomats, described in the previous volume, Activities Incompatible. The present volume covers the author's postings in family-friendly, though still thoroughly Communist Prague (1972-1975) and Vienna (1978-1981), the forum for MBFR, the long-running East/West arms control negotiations, as well as London postings, where Martin followed the slow demise of the Soviet Union and witnessed at first hand Mikhail Gorbachev's dramatic visit to the UK in 1984. By the end of this period Martin's children were teenagers; their story also weaves its way through the narrative.