Black Tea

<p><em><u>Shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Christopher Bland Award 2020</u></em></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Highly informed with a unique perspective Stephen Morris' <em>Black Tea</em> chronicles the changing face of Russia over thirty years. Both memoir and travelogue Stephen hauntingly explores love and identity commitment and family.</strong></p><p>Stephen Morris was always fascinated by Russia. As a child caught between his evangelical grandmother's warnings on the evils of socialism and his father's activism for nuclear disarmament his ambiguous position was exemplified by a huge military map of the Soviet Union tacked to his bedroom wall.</p><p>In the dying days of the Soviet he travels to Moscow and meets and marries a beautiful Russian. Although in London for a time his wife and children return to live in rural Russia. Stephen does not go with them.</p><p>He later returns to take them on a trip through Russia with the hope of reconnecting with his family and the country. Yet the country has changed and so has his family. Adrift he embarks on a lyrical journey that will take him from the White Sea to the Black Sea.</p>