When I was in my early teens, this book was one of my absolute favourites. It’s about a British teenager who finds himself in Romania just as the Ceaucescu regime is falling. I loved it for the idealism, for the music (the narrator is a member of a youth orchestra), for the sense of hope.
The lanyard came from a friend of my father’s who used to work for the EU, and is included with a certain wistfulness.
Kathleen Jowitt 
What a lovely combination – the book and lanyard. It feels so expansive and hopeful and it’s good to be reminded those are still, and always, available to us.
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I’ve been trying to focus on the bigger picture recently; it has been helpful in preventing me getting too down about the current situation.
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I didn’t realise Trease had written contemporary novels! I think I only ever encountered his historicals, though I was always very fond of them.
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I think I read a few of those, but they didn’t stick with me like Song For A Tattered Flag did.
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