Max Bollinger about Anton Chekhov and new production of Chekhov Short Stories:
“One of my most loved authors is Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. I admire not only his literary works, but also his personal achievement as a great human being. Chekhov continued to work as physician and kept treating poor patients free of charge throughout his life, even at times when his own family experienced financial hardships. His style of writing is one of the most unique. He invented stream of consciousness technique and made such immense contribution during his fairly short life, that his works can described as truly immortal. His work is full of inspiration, wisdom and wit which shines so bright, that it can be seen quite possibly beyond the boundaries of our small planet”
I rediscovered Chekhov in England after having read his short stories in English. It felt like Chekhov’s texts started to speak to me. I found his words so agile, so relevant, and so enigmatic, that I could not stop. It was like some magic book written in code suddenly opening up and transforming into beautiful gleaming stream of light. Chekhov’s writing is full of enlightenment, wisdom and humour that I made it a personal goal to bring these stories to anyone seeking light and truth
Chekhov had a sharp eye and was able to capture life with extraordinary skill He often insisted that the duty of art and an artist is not to answer questions, but ask them. And indeed what his writing does is huge effort to make people think and not only see the question but also resolve it. And this resolution is not written in the form of instruction by Chekhov; the way he constructed his stories is such that answers come between the lines. And the solution is different for each person.”
Max Bollinger about Easy Russian for English Speakers series:
“My inspiration to produce this Easy Russian training course is not only based on my experiences of making English language audio training. I am a native speaker of Russian language myself. In my fairly long professional career in England, I have been asked by both my friends and colleagues on many occasions to help them with various aspects of communication in Russian language. In all these cases, requests would be accompanied by long explanation of how difficult it is to learn Russian and how little is available on the market to address the issue. Initially, this surprised me a lot, given that I could see many commercial and academic courses on the market offering tuition. When I did look into available courses, I soon discovered that many such courses were often based on outdated material, presented the language from an academic and often overly complicated angle, or on the other end of the spectrum, offered nothing more than primitive dictionary or phrase book, which did not provide any appropriate context or correct phraseology for those in need of either quick fix or something less demanding than a full time course requiring attendance in class rooms or a software package requiring a degree in computer science and serious financial investment”
“When I learned English, I discovered that my teacher wasn’t only teaching us the language itself. He would bring English literature, music, talk about English culture and this made a huge difference for all his students. I would very much like to do the same with Easy Russian. In the first volume I included fragments of Pushkin poetry, important cultural concepts such as the Russian Soul and some basic informal and business etiquette. The second volume includes live speech of Yuri Gagarin, Chekhov story in the original and even Shakespeare in Russian”
Partial bibliography
Audio books
- 2010, About Truth, Freedom and Love ISBN 9781907832055
- 2010, Easy Russian for English Speakers 1&2 ISBN 9781907832437
- 2010, Easy Russian for English Speakers 2 ISBN 9780956116581
- 2010, Anton Chekhov Sort Story Collection 1 ISBN 9781907832024
- 2010, Mumu ISBN 9780956116567
- 2010, Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Bk.2 ISBN 9780956116550
- 2009, Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Bk.1 ISBN 9780956116543
- 2009, Acid Bath ISBN 9781907832260
- 2009, The Ghost of Engineers' Castle ISBN 9780956116529
- 2009, Relaxing Sound of Ocean Waves ISBN 9780956116512
- 2008, Easy English For Busy People, Voluume 1 ISBN 9780230711709
- 2008, Easy English For Busy People, Voluume 2 ISBN 9780230711730
- 2008, Easy Russian for English Speakers 1 ISBN 9780956116505
Computer games
- 2009, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
- 2009, Darkest of Days
Partial filmography
- The Waters of Mars (2009) (TV)
- 20th Century Battlefields (8 episodes, 2007) (TV)
- Kochana Cafe (2006)
- The Eagle Falls (2006)
- Ghostboat (2006) (TV)
- Space Race (4 episodes, 2005) (TV)
- Nathan Barley (2005) (TV)
- Can't Buy Me Love (2004) (TV)
- Margo Leadbetter (2003) (TV)
