Moscow, 1918. The writer and satirist Teffi is preparing to leave the city that she loves for a book tour she believes will last about a month. At the time, she is a literary sensation: a favourite of the last Tsar, Nikolai II (and indeed of his Bolshevik successor, Lenin). Her celebrity has reached such heights that there even exist a Teffi perfume and Teffi candies; she is hounded for her autograph.

But the revolution takes Teffi from the ivory tower of fame and puts her in the company of the droves of 'ordinary and unheroic' people moving in a body across Russia's vast landscape, fighting for survival. And little does she realise, that she has seen Moscow for the last time

Memories is Teffi's compelling, first-hand account of an extraordinary era in history. Elegant, caustic and heartbreaking, this is her moving report of the final, frantic journey into exile - travelling by cart, freight train and rickety steamer; battling illness and hardship - and the people she encounters along the way. From refugees setting up camp on a dockside to a singer desperately buying a few last craps of fabric to make a dress, all are caught up in the whirlwind; all are immortalized by Teffi's penetrating gaze.

Humane, perceptive and alive with Teffi's trademark exuberant wit, Memories is also at times almost unbearably moving, evoking the bitter horror of being forced to desert your homeland and strike out for destinations unknown. In today's new age of diaspora, her account has a haunting relevance.