Night Waves - Landmarks: The Master and Margarita

One evening in Moscow, the Devil appears in town. He travels with a band of demons including a beautiful naked woman and a huge talking black cat, to torment and deceive the town. In a Night Waves: Landmark, Anne McElvoy and guests turn their attentions to Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov created a love story that was a metaphor for his own life. The Master of the title is a writer hounded by the authorities, whose lover Margarita makes a pact with the devil to save him. The book was written in secret in 1930s Russia, a love story that reflected Bulgakov's own life - his love affair with his third wife Yelena, the underlying fear and violence of Soviet Russia, and the power of the critic as a political tool. Bulgakov's novel remained secret for a quarter of a century after his death and wasn't fully published in Russia until 1973. To discuss The Master and Margarita, Anne is joined by the novelist A.S Byatt, journalist and author James Meek, Bulgakov's biographer Julie Curtis and the actor Anton Lesser.