Dark Shadows

The Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan roadshow moves on to the University of Oxford tomorrow, 28 November, with the author Joanna Lillis giving a talk about her book at New College in lecture room 4 from 17.00 to 18.30. The talk has been organised by  The Oxford Seminar for the Caucasus and Central Asia (TOSCCA) and Oxford Brookes University and  will bring together  Edmund Herzig (Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies, University of Oxford),  Dr.  Saïpira Fürstenberg  (Lecturer in Politics, Oxford Brookes University), Dr.  Alexander Morrison  (Fellow & Tutor in History, University of Oxford) and   Sofya Omarova  (Marie Curie fellow, Oxford Brookes University) to  discuss  Dark Shadows. If you're in Oxford, we hope to see you there!

Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan by Joanna Lillis was launched with great fanfare in London on Thursday, 22 November. We'd like to say a big thank you to John Sandoe  for hosting the event in their wonderful book shop. The shop was packed with family, old friends and new friends from near and far - thank you all so much for taking the time to come and celebrate the launch. I hope you all had a good a time, as we did! Here are some images of the event taken by Aigerim Toleukhan,  a photographer and journalist from Kazakhstan.

Ahead of tonight's London launch of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan, author Joanna Lillis rode into town on her camel in order to sign some copies at the flagship Charing Cross road branch of Foyles. Joanna Lillis signing copies of Dark Shadows in Foyles, London. Don't forget, the launch is tonight, 22 November, at John Sandoe Books from 18.30-20.30. Come along and get your very own signed copy - hope to see you there!

Here's an extract from Joanna Lillis's interview in the independent Kazakh-language weekly newspaper Zhas Alash where she talks about some of the themes raised in her book Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan (if your Kazakh is up to it, you can read the full text here !). Teachers in Krasnaya Polyana, a village in northern Kazakhstan populated almost entirely by Chechens, the descendants of Stalin-era deportees. The scope of the book is very wide. In a nutshell, it’s about Kazakhstan and its people. My goal in the book was for Kazakhstan’s people to explain their own experiences in their own words and share their thoughts. I wanted to let people speak for themselves… One part of the book is devoted to politics, media and human rights. Generally, I wrote about events that have happened in Kazakhstan since I have been living here, but events before and after independence are also discussed.Another topic raised in the book is Kazakhstan’s history and the...

Tune into TalkRADIO  this Sunday evening to hear  John Nicolson  interview Joanna Lillis, author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan - it's live on air at 18.15 UK time.

Finally, it's here - Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan by Joanna Lillis is now available for delivery - you might even be able to spot it in your local bookshop... We now know that the book really does exist - a keen reader has sent in this photo of a real, live physical copy of Dark Shadows, which she received in the post.

European Interest,  an independent online news and feature publication,  has conducted an in-depth interview with Joanna Lillis, drawing on some of the themes developed in her book Dark Shadows: inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan. Is Kazakhstan's 78-year-old President Nursultan Nazarbayev getting ready to hand over the mic to a successor? Below, we have a taster from this cracking interview, to read the whole piece,  click here .  Nazarbayev is 78 years old. Is there any indication that he is preparing his succession? What will happen in the country after he leaves power? This is a good question, and one on many people’s lips – although I have to add that the question has been on the agenda for all the time I have been living in Kazakhstan, which is 13 years. There are indications that Nazarbayev and his entourage are preparing for the succession, such as the limited political reforms designed to create a more collegial system of government enacted last ye...

Due to a double booking, tonight's scheduled  John Nicolson  interview with Joanna Lillis, author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan, on TalkRADIO has been postponed until next Sunday 11 November  - the interview is scheduled to be live on air at 18.15 UK time.

Tune into TalkRADIO this evening to hear John Nicolson interview Joanna Lillis, author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan - it's live on air at 18.30 UK time.

The Calvert Journal ,  a London-based online guide to the contemporary culture of the New East: eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia ,  has published an extract from Dark Shadows that takes a look at the oralmandar , Kazakhs who have moved to Kazakhstan, their 'historical homeland', under the title  Long Way Home . The extract chronicles the tales of 'returnees' whom the author encountered during her travels across Kazakhstan and into neighbouring Mongolia and China. Kazakhs getting ready to move on in Mongolia With intense international media coverage focused in recent months on developments in China's western province of Xinjiang, where around a million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Hui (Chinese Muslims) have been sent to internment camps where they are forced to undergo 're-education', this extract provides a timely reminder that problems have been brewing for quite a while in Xinjiang. “ We were born here, this is our homeland ...

Since early July, interviews with Joanna Lillis, author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan, have featured on different web platforms and media outlets. We'll be collecting these interviews together on Dark Shadows KZ to make them easy for you to locate. The first author interview was conducted with Voices on Central Asia ( in English ), a platform for scholars, authors and journalists interested in Central Asia, and the Central Asian Analytical Network ( in Russian ) in July 2018. In August, the Kazakhstan edition of Esquire magazine featured an interview ( in Russian ) with the author. Here's an extract from the interview with Voices on Central Asia. As a journalist who has covered Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan, for many years, how would you describe Kazakhstan in one sentence if asked by someone in your native country, the United Kingdom, what type of country it is? It’s hard to sum up a country in a single sentence, but if pushed I would...