Yevgeny Zamyatin

The Alliance of Literary Societies has more than a hundred members, from Austen to Zamyatin.

The Yevgeny Zamyatin Society cheerfully admit the society was in part founded to allow the ALS to boast an A-Z list of members on its masthead. They could disband as Zola Readers have joined the alliance. I was not familiar with Zamyatin, born in 1884, 186 miles south of Moscow, so a near contemporary of Bánffy, but writing in a different vein: political satire and science fiction. While Bánffy’s Transylvanian Trilogy was not published in English until 1999, We, probably Zamyatin’s  most important literary legacy, was published in English in 1924 – it wasn’t published in Russian until 1988. Simple explanation – the book was banned by the Communist Party censor. Although Zamyatin was a Bolshevik before the Revolution he became disenchanted with the new communist government. We is set in a dystopian future police state.  Not only was it the first book to be banned by the censor, more importantly it inspired western authors. Aldous Huxley denied it but Brave New World has similarities as does Nineteen Eighty- Four. I have learnt something new, not for the first time writing here.

Of course The PG Wodehouse Society (UK) belongs to the ALS. Most of the members are called after the authors whose work they espouse. Some are called after locations associated with their author. Only one is called after their author’s fictional creation. You should be able to guess which one but if not the answer will be at the end, underneath the musical sign-off. There was a splash of rain yesterday in London after a drought throughout May, so this inspired my choice.

The Sherlock Holmes Society of London