About me
Welcome to my website.
Let me introduce myself. I am an historian and writer, a combination of the two. It’s possible to be one without the other but for me writing and history go hand in hand.
The art, or skill perhaps, of writing took on a new meaning recently when, after years of writing non-fiction books, I published my first historical novel. Know You Her Secret is set during the Russian Revolution. It was inspired by the true story of a great-great-aunt who was a governess to a Russian princess and found herself trapped in the mayhem of Lenin’s revolution at a time when the world changed for ever.
You can discover more about it on this YouTube video filmed at the book launch in Cambridge.
https://youtu.be/8KpfO9gDS9Y?si=E-9Sg1AcBePVMm9L
Scroll down to see other books I have written. It is quite a mixture ranging from academic histories of the Cold War to my first publication many years ago which was about the death penalty in the USA.
I started life as a newspaper journalist, returned to university to complete a PhD at University College London and became a Cold War historian, writing and contributing to academic books as well as those aimed at people who just want to know more about 20th century history.
The Cold War is more to me that just history. It is a part of my life, my personal history. When I left school and before I went to university, I spent several month living behind the Iron Curtain in the East German city of Dresden where I took part in a reconciliation project. I have written about that too.
I also publish a newsletter hosted by Substack which you can find at https://substack.com/@merrilynthomas That is where I try to relate what is happening in the world today to the history that precedes it. You could call it context. It’s a reminder that current events do not arise in isolation; they are shaped by what has gone before.
My books
My books are more than just words on a page. They are the story of my life. And they have lives of their own. They make things happen. I will tell you more about that on other pages, about the impact of writing on the world around us.
Know you her Secret
Inspired by a true story, this sweeping narrative follows Lucy’s transformation from a demur Edwardian lady into a woman fighting for survival in a world that is disintegrating around her. Caught up in conspiracies and murder, she is determined to save the little princess she will not abandon. This is a story of courage and devotion amid the devastation of war.
The Cold War: A Beginner's Guide
We continue to talk about the Cold War, more than 25 years after it was supposed to have ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But what exactly was the Cold War? How did it happen, why did it end and what has been its impact? This short book aimed at the general reader throws light on some Cold War myths created during a conflict in which propaganda and deception were powerful weapons. Understanding the Cold War will help us to understand the world we live in today.
Communing With The Enemy
In this book I examine the little known secret role of British and German Christians in the Cold War. I have delved through the Stasi archives in the former East Germany and talked to some of those involved. Religion was used as a tool of psychological warfare with Christians tunnelling their way beneath the ideological barriers of the Cold War in the name of reconciliation.
Stepping Off The Map
This is one of the hidden stories of the Cold War, one in which I was directly involved. Four years after the building of the Berlin Wall, a group of young British men and women crossed through the Iron Curtain. Their mission was to help rebuild a war bombed hospital in Dresden, East Germany. The project was organised by a man with a vision, the then Provost of Coventry Cathedral. I was one of those who took part. The book recalls the experiences of the young British volunteers and describes the way in which taking part in the project has influenced the rest of their lives.
Life On Death Row
Foreword by Clive Stafford Smith
This is the story of a young British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, and his fight to save the life of a young black man, Edward Johnson, in Mississippi. Edward was sentenced to death for killing a white law officer and was executed in 1987 after eight years on Death Row. Clive and many others believed Edward was innocent. Clive went on to defend others on Death Row in the USA. He is currently head of the human rights organisation Reprieve which he founded.
Wordsmith: The Gift of a Soul
My daughter Megan Young died from cancer aged 32. She was an equine veterinary surgeon and also a poet. In this book, I have used her poems to create an account of her life. Megan's poetry is powerful and profound. It speaks of those things that are common to us all - life and death, joy and pain, eternity and the soul. Her talent is to express these deep and complex thoughts in a language that is both beautiful and simple. Her writing is suffused with an awareness of the spirit yet it is grounded in the reality of her life as a scientist and equine vet.
Recent blog posts
Here are some blogs I have written recently. To see the complete collection of posts, see the blog .
Do You Want To Know A Secret?
After many many months of research, writing, drafting and re-drafting, I have just given birth to my first novel. It has been a long gestation but now – finally – it is done. Know You Her Secret has been published. Inspired by the true story of my great-great-aunt, it relates how Lucy King left her safe, secure middle-class home in Lancashire to become governess to a little Russia princess in the St Petersburg of Imperial Russia and was caught up in the Russian Revolution … So What’s the Secret? Well –it could be one of many. Was my great-great-aunt a … Read more …
Megan Young Poetry Prize 2024
A poem about the sun by the winner of the Megan Young Poetry Prize 2024
Read more ...Megan Young Poetry Prize 2020
Poetry Becomes a Covid Casualty It seems that poetry has become a casualty of Covid 19. Schools are being advised they can drop poetry from the GCSE syllabus, at least for the next 12 months. What a shame! Children are natural poets. They are uninhibited. They express their thoughts and feelings as they find them. They love rhythm and are fascinated by word play. They don’t just read poetry – they write it. I know this as the mother of a child who wrote poetry from the moment she could write. I know it also because in recent years I … Read more …
Remembering Dresden reconciliation
Dresden Anniversary Fifty-five years ago, when the world was divided into East and West, communism and capitalism, I went to the city of Dresden with a group of other young people from Britain. We were full of idealism about a peaceful world, a world where people of all countries could live in harmony with one another. We were doing our bit against chauvinism and hate – even if those thoughts were poorly formulated in our young minds at that time. We went there to help rebuild a church hospital which had been partially destroyed during the bombing raid of February … Read more …
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