it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.—Lewis Carroll,Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)In novels, thick fog always envelops the city of London just when something dramatic is about to happen. It hides the robberies and the kidnapping in Oliver Twist. It shrouds the arrival of Dracula when he comes for Mina Harker, and Sherlock Holmes watches it swirl down the street before the fateful events in The Sign of Four. But on September 7, 1978, light morning showers had given way to sunshine by the time Georgi Markov parked his car and began walking toward the Waterloo Bridge. Had it been foggy, Markov might have left his windbreaker in the closet and donned an overcoat, or at least a pair of heavier trousers. Either one could have saved his life.At home in Bulgaria, Markov’s novels and plays had made him a famous literary star, someone who mingled with the social and political elite. He’d even gone on hunting trips with the president. Since defecting to the West, that insider knowledge had helped him craft accurate and scathing commentaries on repression behind the Iron Curtain.
