Big Red
In 1999, while touring Australia on a lecture tour, Mikhail Gorbachev had a free day up his sleeve.
Minders suggested the former head of Russia ought to visit the Blue Mountains, or Bondi Beach or the Opera House. Even Rene Rivkin - a flamboyant stockbroker - offered the Red-Head a run in his opulent cruiser.
Nyet, said Gorby. As the man largely credited with ending the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and Communist supremacy had a love of books. Rare books. Where was the best place to browse them?
Berrima Book Barn was the consensus, the mother ship of the Berkelouw fleet, 120kms southwest of Sydney.
‘He came with an interpreter from his time as president,’ recalls David Berkelouw, a sixth-generation bookseller. ‘He had a Russian bodyguard and several members of Federal Police. It was a surreal occasion.
‘He spent the whole day here. He had a genuine interest in Australia from his time as Agricultural Minister. And a love of Australian literature - as he read several novels in translation as a student. We had lunch together, talking about books and world politics. Americans were invading the Balkans at the time. It was a very frank chat.’
Visit the barn yourself, and you’ll see evidence of Gorby’s historical pop-in. Under glass, near the store’s main counter, is a Lenin bio with Mikhail’s signature on the title page, along with a few stills and snippets of The Day Mr Glasnost felt like a browse in Berrima.
Read more of the barn’s 300,000 preloved books - plus the company’s amazing Rotterdam origins at http://www.berkelouw.com.au/about/berrima