Caroline has a life-long fascination with Russia and her people. She travelled to Russia as a tourist several times, befriending many of the outstanding creative personalities from the spheres of theatre, film and the arts. They took her to their hearts, and she to hers, forming enduring bonds of friendship; she was a frequent guest in their homes and was treated like one of the family, allowing her to discover at first-hand how they lived, what their hopes and concerns were, and what they thought about their own country and the world beyond the Iron Curtain, at a time when Russia was embarking on a path of radical change. Later, Caroline was invited to play the role of Chekhov's enigmatic character Charlotta, the foreign governess in his last play, Cherry Orchard, in Russian and on the stage of his home-town theatre in Taganrog. Subsequently, the Director of the renowned Moscow Art Theatre, Oleg Yefremov, engaged Caroline to play the same part under his direction. She was the first English actress to have been offered such an unparalleled opportunity. This brought Caroline into the epicentre of the Russian classical theatre, where she was received as an esteemed colleague, beloved by the whole company. Throughout this exciting time, Caroline kept detailed diaries, published here for the first time; they tell of her deeply personal emotional highs and lows, her joys and frustrations ... Caroline and her Russian friends would emerge from this captivating adventure, transformed for all time.