Anthony Phillips learnt Russian in the ""Secret Classrooms""of National Service in the 1950s and later at Oxford. Thelanguage continued to play an important part during his latercareer in music administration, during which he becamegeneral manager of London's Royal Festival Hall. Story of aFriendship, his translation of Shostakovich's letters to IsaakGlikman, was published by Faber in 2000, and AntonChekhov: A Life in Letters (with Rosamund Bartlett) byPenguin Classics in 2004.
'The third and final instalment of Prokofiev's diaries . . . in Anthony Phillips's excellently clear translation . . . These diaries are addictive and the effect of not seeing the life through his eyes anymore is a wrench . . . A stupendous work.' - Alexander Waugh, Literary Review 'Should appeal well beyond Prokofiev's immediate fan base to readers intrigued by the siren song of Christian Science and / or sympathetic outsider's take on the Diaghilev set.' - David Gutman, Gramphone