Thelma on the staircase of the old English embassy in Moscow

More officially: "Old English Court" (Старый английский двор) It is next to the Kremlin. it witnessed the birth of Anglo-Russian relations in the age of Ivan IV (the Terrible) and Elizabeth I. Ivan even wanted to marry the English queen. It was here from 1556 to 1649 that the first English trading and ambassadorial office in Moscow was located, the first official residence of a Western power in the Russian capital. The attendant lady told me: "teach your wife Russian, too". But she was my wife still only in my heart, and we never got round to doing Russian with her - the only word she learnt was "peck-toe-pah" as she read "ресторан" (restaurant) on Cyrillic street signs.