Prominent translator’s talk on “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy

On Friday 6th October 2006 the Russian Department was very honoured to invite prominent Professor Anthony Briggs to talk about his translation of the epic novel, “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy, which was recently published to great acclaim. Students from the English, History and Modern Languages Departments came along. The lecture was fascinating, extremely well attended and very popular!

Professor Briggs’ lively and inspiring talk gave us all a real insight into the many wonderful characters and stories within the novel. He also explored the dilemmas faced by any translator in staying true to the prose of the original whilst at the same time producing a well written and appropriate text in its own right.

We are all very grateful to Professor Briggs for his humour and sharing with us his experiences and great love of literature. He was a real inspiration to our sixth formers and staff alike!