Melanie Brown was inspired to complete The Broken Balalaika after finding several chapters, written in the 1980s, by her late mother, Margaret.
Melanie spent eighteen years of her life, as a photographer, working on a variety of cruise ships sailing all over the globe, and absolutely loved it.
She has now settled in Spain with her son and two Chinchilla cats and spends her time painting animal and nature studies and baking a multitude of cakes.
She is already gathering more memories from her life at sea, and after, for a follow-up book.
Louisa Bennett, a ship’s photographer, meets the handsome Ukrainian electrician and balalaika player, Gennadi Potenko, at a Russian crew party aboard the M.S. Ukraina in 1981. These are Cold War times, and any close contact between Eastern and Western crew members is strictly forbidden.After an ev...