Nora & John: The Russian Love Story

by Nora Murray, John Murray

Overview

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: Narrative that is direct, candid, unpretentious. A member of a highly privileged caste in Soviet society… reduced to a ‘mozho’ girl mixing with foreigners, with instructions to report on them… the real story is in the simple, graphic and almost entirely persuasive account of her observations – some amusing and others horribly or pitifully gruesome.

In the unforgiving WWII climate of 1940, 21-year old Nora is faced with a perilous ultimatum: Enlist with Stalin’s secret police as a honey trap, or face the death of her family. Despairingly she agrees.  

Nora finds herself struggling to seduce her target, John Murray, a British Embassy cypher in Moscow.

As two disparate lives intertwine, their desperate escape leads the couple through frozen Arctic wastelands, clutching forged papers and hopes not just for survival but for a future together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912031665
Publisher:	GB Publishing.org
Publication date:	10/25/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	402
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Nora's métier was writing and as such she felt at one with the tools of that trade. Forever writing letters and making entries in her diary, a consummate Lady of Letters, her book would allow her to express her distaste for totalitarian regimes and the love of Mother Russia. Nora was a bubbly intelligent optimist who throughout her life would find the best in people. With her indomitable Russian spirit she would never take 'no' for an answer; enabling her, in overcoming insurmountable obstacles, to escape and survive the devastations of her war torn country.
John Murray born of Greek/Irish parents and brought up in Edwardian England soon found himself working in Latvia. Having achieved a commercial education at Pitman's College he was put in charge of managing a cigarette factory. Later, he became its owner while also running an import export business in the Baltic States. As war loomed large in Europe his fortunes changed. He was called upon to work for the British Government eventually finding himself as a cypher in the British Embassy, Moscow. During this time, John a highly insightful self-made individual succumbed to the entreaties of a desperate human being and found himself engulfed in the intricacies of Soviet WWII espionage and counter-intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Times Literary Supplement: Narrative that is direct, candid, unpretentious. Reflecting all that is strange and incomprehensible about Soviet WWII Russia.

A member of a highly privileged caste in Soviet society… reduced to a ‘mozho’ girl mixing with foreigners, with instructions to report on them… the real story is in the simple, graphic and almost entirely persuasive account of her observations – some amusing and others horribly or pitifully gruesome. She emerged from a fantastic situation as the wife of the secretary to the British Naval Attaché in Moscow (Mr Murray), with Soviet permission to leave with him for England.

Oxford Mail: A woman of infinite ingenuity, persistence and great courage. The book would make an admirable film on the lines of “Odette”.

Yorkshire Observer: As a work of fiction one would have regarded it as highly exciting and admirably constructed. Yet, astonishingly, every word is true.

Yorkshire Evening Press: How she fell in love and married the man she was forced to spy on is admirably told, but nothing could be more thrilling than her ultimate escape from the secret police.

Yorkshire Post: Told with a simplicity that carries conviction, and with a narrative skill that makes it as absorbing as any novel.

Aberdeen Express: A remarkable story of personal courage. The revelations are grim and often terrifying.

Birmingham Gazette: A curious story, dramatic, moving and always interesting.

Cambridge Daily News: A curious human story.

Good Housekeeper: Told without melodrama or hysterics and indeed with a calmness and sympathy that is surprising. The story is of an immensely courageous woman.

STAFFORD EVENING SENTINEL: confirms much of what has already been written about the grim conditions of life under the Soviet system

LIVERPOOL ECHO: Lieut.-General Sir Noel Mason-Macfarlane “As an example of initiative, drive and sheer pluck Nora’s adventures and success were truly remarkable.”

PEOPLE: Thrilling and true

From the Publisher