Surrey Grandmother’s Covid fear before hit book published
Added: (Fri Jul 30 2021)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
It was the Covid pandemic, and the first lockdown, that finally gave a Surrey grandmother the motivation and time to complete her debut novel which had been work in progress for many years. Marianne Bell’s remarkably good The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life has already attracted a string of stunning five-star reviews as well as reaching the top ten in the book charts.
Marianne, who now lives in the village of Limpsfield in Surrey explained “Publishing The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life is the realisation of a childhood dream. It has been the work of many years – with long breaks. I’m 78 years old, which many would think was ancient for a debut novel, but ultimately it was the threat of Covid, and the realisation that I was in a vulnerable age-group, that brought home to me that, with many revisions already sitting on my laptop, it would be an awful shame if I died without completing it. Lock-down gave me the incentive to get on with it.”
The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life is a gripping, psychological edge-of-the-seat thriller set around Cheltenham and the Cotswolds at the height of the Cold War. When a young officer from the government’s communications and intelligence agency, GCHQ disappears on her way home one winter evening, she is suspected of defection to the Soviet Union in the wake of prominent defections like Kim Philby. But many years later, when her skeleton turns up in a remote part of the Cotswolds it leads to more questions than answers. The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life authoritatively explores the impact of the girl’s disappearance on family, friends, work colleagues and future generations who never knew her.
Marianne had wanted to write a book since childhood. She got the idea for her plot when she herself was an employee of GCHQ (Government Communications HQ) in Cheltenham in the 1960s. In those early days she used to walk everywhere. This was probably good for her health and fitness, but the down side was the number of kerb-crawlers operating on Cheltenham’s streets, especially on warm summer evenings. “It was unnerving, and I used to hug the insides of pavements, as far from the kerb as possible, marching purposefully along, ready to duck up the nearest garden path as though to my own front door should anybody make a move to get out of their car and grab me. I used to wonder how the powers-that-be would respond if I, or someone like me, were abducted, given the nature of my job. High profile defections like Kim Philby, Burgess and McClean etc were still quite fresh in the public consciousness. Would people think I’d followed suit? And indeed, I have sometimes wondered whether a young Fred West might have been among the kerb-crawlers that use to hassle me.”
Since the summer release of The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life it has earned rave reviews from captivated readers. Marianne’s debut has been described as ‘an excellent read’, ‘beautifully observed’, and ‘very satisfying’. Reviewer Helen Dunn stated: “A clever story that kept me hooked throughout.”
The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life reached number nine in Amazon’s thrillers charts. For more information, visit Amazon and search for Marianne E Bell, where the paperback and Kindle versions of The Spy Who Walked Out of Her Life are available.