A few days before the opening of the Essex book festival- which is now in its 25th anniversary year- Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois, has praised the efforts of a widow for completing and then successfully publishing a half-completed novel by her late husband, British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer.
The Novel, entitled “Survivors”, tells the story of a Russian aristocrat, who escaped from St Petersburg during the Russian Revolution of 1917, only to overcome many other perils, including travelling to Siberia, before settling safely in the West, many years later. The book, which was only part-finished when Sir Christopher died in 2023, was taken up by his widow - and daughter of the heroine in the book - Baroness Catherine Meyer, in tribute to her late husband.
The book, which is available from Kindle Direct Publishing (part of Amazon) has already sold several thousand copies.
Commenting on this unusual literary event, Mark Francois said:
“The Essex book festival commences this Friday and will run for q month, in that context, I am proud of my friend, Catherine Meyer, for finishing Christoper’s book and getting it successfully published, in his name. It is a wonderful novel, made all the more poignant by what is happening in modern day Russia and Ukraine. I can thoroughly recommend the work, which people can still order directly on Amazon- and I hope that some will.”
