Press Release

Elizabeth’s Russian Experiences Now Translated into a Novel

A local author who helped modernise a key Russian industry in the chaotic days following the end of the Cold War recalls her experiences in a new book. 

The Soviet Union had been dead for just over a year, and the population was still getting used to huge economic, political and social changes when, in 1993, Devon author Elizabeth Ducie flew into Sheremetevo airport on her first business trip to Russia. Over the next twenty years, while helping to bring the region’s pharmaceutical industry up to modern standards, she made more than one hundred visits to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan. She observed a system in flux; ate and drank her way through many professional and social occasions; and made some wonderful friends along the way. Now these experiences form the basis of her debut novel, Gorgito’s Ice Rink which was recently published by Chudleigh Phoenix Publications. 

“While the story is completely fictional, there are lots of incidents in the book that come straight from my work in Russia. In fact the title character is based on the first Russian I ever worked with,” says Elizabeth, who lives in Chudleigh.

Gorgito’s Ice Rink is a tale of love, loss and broken promises. When a talented Russian skater gets the chance to train in America, Gorgito Tabatadze promises her grief-stricken brother he will build an ice rink in Nikolevsky, their home town, to bring her home again. With the help of of a British engineer, who has fled to Russia to escape her own heartache, and hindered by the local Mayor, who has his own reasons for wanting the project to fail, Gorgito battles bureaucracy, corruption, economic melt-down and the harsh Russian climate in his quest to re-unite a young boy and his sister.

Gorgito’s Ice Rink is available on Amazon as both an ebook and in paperback; or as a paperback directly from the publisher. Review copies are available on request. For more details or a media pack, contact Elizabeth Ducie on 01626 854611 / elizabeth@elizabethducie.co.uk or consult the website: www.elizabethducie.co.uk

Ends