I greatly appreciated Olivia Sudjic writing how her family’s background imbued her with a “sense of place” about the Yugoslavia she never directly experienced (Journal, 30 August). Several times in the 1960s and 1970s I spent much of the summer in the Balkans, revelling precisely in the intertwining of languages, religions, alphabets and histories that seemed to rub along together. Indeed, that mish-mash (and the glorious climate) was for many years a major selling point of the country’s tourist board.
Among the memories of my time there is sitting in a park overlooking Belgrade, reading Olivia’s grandmother’s book – I still have it – and learning of the sub-dialectical variations of Serbo-Croat, a topic on which I can bore people to this day.
Despite the superficiality of my connection with the place, I was horrified by the civil wars and the splitting apart of the country in the 1990s (the fighting sometimes being preceded by a binary-choice referendum). And I bitterly remember the hypocrisy of many EU politicians who – arguing for internationalism and against borders in other contexts – egged on those dismembering Yugoslavia.
I’ve only been back to one corner of the ex-country since, and was horrified at the petty nationalism that had appeared. I want to go back again, but fear what I might find.
Albert Beale
London
I live in Great Yarmouth so was interested to read Kerry Hudson’s article (2 September) about the town, and I actually met her at a literature festival in Norwich this year, where I criticised some of her views and feelings about my home town conveyed in her book Lowborn. But I appreciate the warmth she exudes when she talks of a resort that is feeling the pain of deprivation but which tries so hard to reinvent itself with its cultural and historical offer, along with all the traditional seaside jollity. She is right that it voted heavily to leave the EU, but conversely it still welcomes people from other countries, so it wasn’t all about immigration.
Personally I think our seafront is second to none and there are plans to reinvigorate the shopping area, because like every high street in the country it is suffering from a lack of footfall and empty shops. I know what she means that it is a vocal town with strong opinions about almost everything – as a dedicated remainer I am outnumbered – but its inhabitants would defend my right to voice my opinions. They might use a traditional Norfolk expression, “a load of old squit”, but in a good-natured, raise-their-eyebrows Yarmouth way.
What you see is what you get, perhaps without the “gentility” of other resorts, but I think Kerry would agree it’s all the better for that, and I’m pleased she still has warm thoughts and not all blighted memories of it.
Judith Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
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