Personal tribute from our Chairman to a late, great servant of his country

With pride, we publicise the posthumous launch of Sir Christopher Meyer’s book “Survivors”

Part-history, part-biography, part-novel, the former US Ambassador’s novel was his final project and is a compelling read

It has been 18 months since Sir Christopher Meyer KCMG – former UK Ambassador to the United States – died suddenly from heart failure in his holiday home in his beloved Megève in the Haute-Savoie department of France, where he is now buried in the local graveyard. I was privileged to have known him a little and his death came as a great shock to me, to his family and to his many friends.

Had he had advance warning, ‘Sir Socks’ (as he was known online), would have been very cross because he was about to fulfil a long-held ambition of completing a novel. It was a project which dominated his life for several years. Thanks to the efforts of his widow, Catherine The Rt Hon Baroness Meyer CBE, this novel is now finally published.

This book is a riveting and highly educational read and I – and the teams at CIBUK and Facts4EU – are pleased to have worked with Baroness Meyer to bring it to the attention of all our readers.

About Sir Christopher

A regular television, radio and newspaper commentator on international affairs and the media, Sir Christopher presented and co-wrote a six-part TV documentary series for Sky Atlantic, ‘Networks of Power’, and a three-part series, ‘Getting our Way’, for the BBC, as well as several documentaries for BBC Radio.

He authored three books, including ‘DC Confidential’, the best-selling memoir of his 40 years in the Diplomatic Service. ‘Survivors’, published posthumously, is his first – and sadly last – novel.

This sweeping family saga follows Katya and her family’s perilous journey across the world. It takes us across Siberia and then details how, escaping capture and execution by the Bolsheviks, they finally reached Manchuria in 1920 only to find themselves caught up in the power struggle between Chinese warlords, in the Chinese civil war, and then in the Japanese invasions. The family was forced to flee again, first to Peking and then to Shanghai.

By the time Japan entered WWII, Baroness Meyer’s mother had moved to Hanoi and finally to Saigon where at last she found love and security.

The guest list for this event is extraordinary and is a testimony of the enormous warmth felt for him and the esteem in which Sir Christopher was held.

The ‘back story’

Baroness Meyer’s mother had begged Sir Christopher to write her story. Once he took on the task, he was so enthralled that he let his imagination run, introducing fictitious characters, and new intrigues – some of which were plucked from his own experience as an FCO diplomat in Moscow during the Cold War.

‘Survivors’ is a fascinating tale written in Christopher’s wonderfully lucid style. He always knew how to deliver a compelling narrative and ‘Survivors’ is certainly that. He would have been delighted to know it has finally been printed. We are therefore equally delighted to promote it – for love not money.