Meet Saskia!

This is Saskia , a Russian doll, brought back from Russia to the U.K. by my Uncle John. Uncle John was a Professor at Oxford University . His specialist subject was ancient Russian paper mills, he was instrumental in building up the retrospective collections of Russian books in the Taylorian and Bodleian Libraries and the creation in the Bodleian of the only specialised Slavonic reading room in the country. He believed that it was these library collections along with a group of Russian academic teachers recruited by Serge Konovalov, Maurice Bowra, and Isaiah Berlin, that led to the establishment of Oxford as the only centre for Slavonic studies in England.