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Reproduced from The Linguist 61-1

The author of Nemesis and McMafia speaks to Miranda Moore about the role of languages in his life.

As an undergraduate studying drama with German at the University of Bristol in the mid-1970s, Misha Glenny got involved with a group of activists fighting censorship in the Eastern Bloc. 鈥淭hey would smuggle books and dismembered Xerox machines to the opposition,鈥� explains the author of McMafia and DarkMarket. As his fascination with the politics of Eastern Europe grew 鈥� galvanised in part by his father鈥檚 interests as a translator of Russian literature 鈥� so too did his thirst for knowledge of the countries and their people.

H already knew that he wanted to be a foreign correspondent. Where he differed from other young idealists emerging from adolescence at the time was in his conviction that gaining an in-depth understanding of the area would involve learning at least one of its languages. He opted for Czech out of pure convenience: while living in Berlin as part of his university course, he made friends with a Czech man who was able to cross the border freely because his wife was German. They spent a week touring Prague together.

鈥淚t was a very dramatic time politically, with [the human rights advocacy group] Charter 77 having got off the bat, so I started teaching myself Czech,鈥� he says. A month-long summer school in Prague and 10-month postgraduate research trip saw him reach relative fluency.

Now a professor at UCL and consultant to governments on transnational organised crime, he also speaks Portuguese and Serbo-Croat, plus rudimentary Hungarian, Albanian and Russian, and can communicate in most Slavic languages. As we talk about his life 鈥� from BBC Central Europe Correspondent during the 1989 revolutions to public speaker covering topics such as cyber crime and fake news 鈥� it becomes clear that Glenny鈥檚 primary motivation for language learning has always been a burning interest in the related politics and people. 鈥淚 was so interested in Germany, Central Europe, Russia, South-Eastern Europe 鈥� Yugoslavia in particular 鈥� and that is what drove me to learn languages. I didn鈥檛 see it as a burden; I really enjoyed it.鈥澛�

As a child, his home was filled with books in Cyrillic script and languages that he didn鈥檛 recognise. Before Glenny鈥檚 father, Michael, became a translator and academic, he was a European sales manager for Wedgwood, and the family travelled to Belgium, Germany and Spain for holidays, as well as staying with family in the Netherlands. 鈥淲e were swamped by a sense of being European 鈥� something I feel very, very strongly about to this day.鈥� (He is relieved to have kept his EU citizenship via an Irish passport 鈥渂y dint of the intelligence of my paternal grandfather in being born in Newry, County Down鈥�).聽

It is not by accident that his sister also became a linguist, studying Russian at Sussex and Harvard universities, while Glenny was absorbed in international affairs and the Cold War by the age of 12. It was his father, of course, who taught him to read Cyrillic, but his mother Juliet who found him a three-month placement in Germany that would have a lasting impact. After years of studying French (which he 鈥渨as never that fond of鈥�) and then Latin and German at school, he spent the first term of his A levels at a Gymnasium in Korbach, Hessen. 鈥淚t made me appreciate German as I appreciate no other language; it鈥檚 marvellously expressive,鈥� he says. A weekly civics lesson had pupils discussing articles from Der Spiegel. 鈥淪o from the age of 16, I was reading German press as well as the British press and, of course, that gave you a very different perspective on Europe.鈥�

Glenny would later learn to speak German with a Viennese accent. Moving to Austria as a BBC stringer in 1986, he arrived just as news was breaking of presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim鈥檚 past as a Nazi Intelligence Officer. The story took him to Zagreb and Belgrade. 鈥淚 started to use my Czech in order to read the papers in Croatia and Serbia. In Serbia, most of it was in Cyrillic, but that鈥檚 where the Russian helped,鈥� he says. Before long, he was reasonably fluent in Serbo-Croat.

A revolutionary position

In those days, Central Europe was seen as something of a backwater, so when the BBC鈥檚 correspondent retired in 1988, only three people applied to replace him. 鈥淚 was the only one who had been working regularly in Eastern Europe at the time, and I spoke Czech, I had some Hungarian, I had Serbo-Croat and I had German. For the World Service it was a no-brainer,鈥� Glenny explains.

鈥淭hose of us who were in Vienna knew that the tectonic plates were shifting in Eastern Europe, that things were about to go up.鈥� When the revolutions happened, he was perfectly positioned, and not just because of his language skills. 鈥淚 knew most of the Cabinet members of the first democratic Czechoslovak government as personal friends because they were all Charter 77,鈥� he explains. 鈥淎nd in Yugoslavia, the fact that I spoke Serbo-Croat put me out in front.鈥�

Speaking the language of a conflict zone is also a matter of personal security, and being able to determine whether someone was a Bosnian or a Serbo-Croat was vital. 鈥淚n Bosnia they speak a variant called Ijekavski, unlike a Serb from Serbia, who speaks Ekavski. By just asking one or two leading questions you immediately know whether you鈥檙e dealing with a Serb or a Bosnian,鈥� Glenny explains.

In a particularly hair-raising incident, he was crossing the front line between Croatia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Crina with journalist and broadcaster Kirsty Lang, who he later married. The Serbian soldiers allowed him to pass but instructed him to leave Lang behind. 鈥淚 was able to become indignant speaking Ekavski and brandishing a copy of [the Serbian paper] Politica, and I said in a very heavy Serbian accent, 鈥業鈥檓 a Serbian brother-in-law, this work is very important.鈥欌�� It was a nomenclature he was entitled to because, at the time, he was married to a Serb; he used it only twice 鈥渢o save people鈥檚 lives, or at least to save them or me from a very nasty fate 鈥� Kirsty on this occasion.鈥�

Glenny鈥檚 later research took him to places whose languages he did not speak, notably for McMafia: Seriously organised crime 鈥� an exploration of organised crime around the world. So did the lack of language skills leave him feeling exposed? 鈥淭he key thing if you鈥檙e doing research like that: you find your fixer and your translator first of all. I was very reliant on them,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 needed interpretation for Brazil, because I didn鈥檛 speak Portuguese at the time; I needed it for South Africa because some of the interviews were in Zulu or Xhosa; I needed it for Japan and China.鈥�

He returned to Brazil for a deeper dive into the drugs trade, staying in Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro for three months while researching Nemesis: One man and the battle for Rio 鈥� an experience he describes as very hard due to the poverty and deprivation. For Glenny, telling the story of the drug trafficker Ant么nio (Nem) Francisco Bonfim Lopes meant studying Brazilian Portuguese, but learning a language aged 53 proved to be a little harder than learning in his teens and 20s. He admits that living in a favela, where even the interpreters had no idea what some words meant, with intermediate language skills was 鈥渢otally ludicrous. Brazilian Portuguese is highly dialectal, and they didn鈥檛 just speak Carioca (Rio Portuguese), they spoke Rocinhan.鈥� But the interpreters who accompanied Glenny to Campo Grande prison, where Nem is serving a 96-year sentence, got to know when he was following the exchange and when they needed to step in.

Ever fascinated by dialects and the connections between languages, he took delight in inadvertently adopting Rocinhan vocabulary. 鈥淚 would use the phrase X nove, which means a confidential informant of the police working inside the cartels, and when I was talking about it to my publishers in S茫o Paulo, they all burst out laughing because they couldn鈥檛 believe this English person, stumbling through Portuguese, would suddenly come up with a sort of insider phrase like that.鈥�

Production on a Hollywood film of Nemesis is due to start this year, while Glenny鈥檚 books have been translated into 33 languages. Screen adaptations bring a whole new 鈥� and much broader 鈥� audience, and his first experience of this came with the TV drama McMafia. Working with a 鈥渄ream team鈥�, including screenwriter Hossein Amini, it gave him 鈥渁 rather false sense of the TV industry, which in fact is a very difficult industry indeed. As an Executive Producer, I was in the writers鈥� room. It was just such fun 鈥� it was glamorous and everything you think it would be.鈥�

When it came to the book translations he was slightly further removed, but happy to field questions on any misunderstandings or ambiguities in the text. 鈥淚鈥檓 a great admirer of translators,鈥� he says. 鈥淯ntil very recently, they were very rarely recognised for the extraordinary work they do.鈥�

With works spanning money laundering, corruption, the dark web and criminal hackers, Glenny now also works as a consultant and speaker. If he is going to address audiences in a language other than English, he prefers to arrive a week in advance, so he has time to slide back into the other language. 鈥淚 like to immerse myself, so that I鈥檓 ready to speak conversationally in a formal situation,鈥� he says.

鈥淚 have to say that the way my career has developed as a journalist and writer is inextricably linked with language learning. I couldn鈥檛 have done anything I鈥檝e done without languages and that remains true to this day.鈥�