The Picnic
An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain
By Matthew Longo
product.options_with_values.size == 1: 1
product.available == false: true
block.settings.unavailable_variants == 'hide': show
target.option1: New
product.option1:
product.options_with_values: [{"name":"Condition","position":1,"values":["New"]}]
product group: 10
product type: Book
is_new_or_remainder_or_default_title? true
has_only_one_condition_option? true
New RRP:
In-stock. Aims to ship within 2 - 6 business days.
In-stock. Aims to ship within 1 business day.
An extraordinarily dramatic reconstruction of the greatest border breach in Cold War history
In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable- they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain - and held a picnic.
Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border between Hungary and Austria and packed the nearby camping sites, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The highest state authorities were choosing to turn a blind eye - but that could change at any moment. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history- that day hundreds would cross from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union - the so-called end of history - all would flow from those dramatic hours.
Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved - activists and border guards, escapees and secret police, as well as the last Communist prime minister of Hungary - Matthew Longo reconstructs not only this remarkable event but also its complex and bittersweet aftermath. Freedom had been won but parents had been abandoned and families divided. Love affairs faltered and new lives had to be built from scratch.
The Picnic is the story of a moment when the tide of history turned. It shows how freedom can be both dream and disillusionment, and how all we take for granted can vanish in an instant.
- ISBN:
- 9781847927804
- Format:
- Paperback / softback
- Pages:
- 320
- Published:
- Publisher:
- Vintage Publishing
- Imprint:
- The Bodley Head Ltd
- Weight:
- 388 g