Know You Her Secret – a book launch by Dr Merrilyn Thomas in conversation with Prof Anthony Cross

an Englishwoman’s fight for survival during the Russian Revolution

Dr Merrilyn Thomas will be in conversation with Professor Anthony Cross who was one of her Russian history lecturers at the University of East Anglia many years ago. They will be discussing her new historical novel Know You Her Secret set during the Russian Revolution. The book is based on a true story that of Merrilyn’s great-great-aunt Lucy King who was governess to Princess Sofka Dolgorouky. Merrilyn will be revealing the stories – for there is more than one – behind the novel including how a reference in one of Professor Cross’s books led her to discover a link between the Dolgoroukys and the murder of Rasputin. The book tells the story of how Lucy King was caught up in the revolution fled to Crimea and was eventually rescued along with the Dowager Empress of Russia by the British navy.

When: Tuesday 4 February 2025 at 18:30 – 20:30 (doors open at 18:00)

Where: The Gordon Cameron Lecture Theatre Fitzwilliam College Cambridge CB3 0DG

Language: English

Format: in person & online via Zoom

Tickets: £8 standard / £5 CamRuSS members & concessions;

Access via Zoom and video recording: £5 standard / free for CamRuSS members & students.

Followed by a wine reception.

Dr Merrilyn Thomas is a writer historian and honorary research fellow at UCL. She is an expert on the Cold War and the author of several books.

Merrilyn has had a lifelong interest in Russia starting from childhood when her imagination was first captured by the story of the great-great-aunt who had escaped from the Russian Revolution. In 2006 she was finally able to fulfil her dream of spending some time in St Petersburg where she attempted to retrace the steps of her ancestor – it was winter the Neva was frozen snow lay on the ground and the whole city sparkled.

In the 1960s during what is now known as a gap year and before enrolling at the University of East Anglia where she studied Russian and German history year Merrilyn took part in a reconciliation project in the East German city of Dresden. The project organised by Coventry Cathedral involved helping to rebuild a Church hospital partially destroyed during the bombing raid of 1945. The months she spent living in the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War were a formative experience. She continued to return to Dresden over the decades that followed and as the years went by began to ask herself how and why it was that this project had been allowed to take place at a time when Cold War tensions were high and the Berlin Wall had virtually closed the GDR to Western visitors. With the end of the Cold War she realised it might be possible to find some answers. In the mid-1990s she enrolled as a PhD student at UCL under the supervision of GDR expert Professor Mary Fulbrook. Her research examined relations between Britain and the GDR in the 1960s and used the Coventry/Dresden reconciliation project as a case study. Since then she has published two books on the subject; the first an academic monograph based on her PhD thesis; the second an edited memoir containing the recollections of six of the volunteers who took part in the project. The latter was recently translated into German and this summer Merrilyn spoke about her research and experiences at the launch of the translated volume in Dresden.

Merrilyn started her working life as a newspaper journalist and published her first book at that time telling the story of an English lawyer’s fight against the death penalty in the USA. In the course of her research for that book she visited the American Deep South and spoke to prisoners on Death Row.

Merrilyn has two children and three grandchildren and lived in Cambridge for many years.

Visit Merrilyn’s website – https://merrilynthomas.com/ – to explore her work insights and latest projects.

Her publications include:

Know You Her Secret: An Englishwoman’s fight for survival during the Russian Revolution (Medlar Tree Publishing 2024)

Arglos im Kalter Krieg: Wie junge Briten beim Wideraufbau der Diakonissenanstalt in Dresden halfen (editor translated by Rainer Barczaitis) (Thelem Universitätsverlag 2024)

Stepping Off the Map: Memories of a Cold War Adventure (Medlar Tree Publishing 2015)

The Cold War: A Beginner’s Guide (Oneworld 2008)

Communing with the Enemy: Covert Operations Christianity and Cold War Politics in Britain and the GDR (Peter Lang 2005)

Life On Death Row: One Man’s Fight Against Racism and the Death Penalty (Piatkus 1989 hardback Harper Collins 1991 paperback)

Host or Publisher The Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society (CamRuSS)