![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.bassettbranches.org\/newsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/TonyBassett1.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\nThe book can be ordered from one of the links below.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/The-Lazarus-Charter\/dp\/191356701X<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lazarus-Charter-Tony-Bassett-ebook\/dp\/B085MN9KL4<\/a><\/p>\n PRESS RELEASE<\/p>\n Tony Bassett, a former Fleet Street journalist from South East London in the\u00a0UK, has had his second book published this month to coincide with the second anniversary of the Wiltshire novichok poisonings.<\/p>\n Tony Bassett, author of thriller The Lazarus Charter, said: \u201cI felt compelled to write the novel partly because of the growing dangers posed in this country by foreign agents who seem to believe they can act without regard for the law.\u201d<\/p>\n On March 4, 2018, former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fell ill in Salisbury after being exposed to novichok.\u00a0 Four months later, innocent mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in the city\u2019s hospital, eight days after coming into contact with the same nerve agent.<\/p>\n The former Sunday People journalist has dedicated his book to Dawn Sturgess and also to Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in a separate incident in London in 2006.<\/p>\n The novel concerns Kent couple, Bob and Anne Shaw, whose lives are threatened by Russian agents.<\/p>\n Tony says: \u2018The novel partly focuses on the new dangers posed in Britain by the activities of Russian intelligence agents.\u00a0 So I wanted to dedicate it to the two people who have lost their lives as a result of the two major poisoning cases.\u2019<\/p>\n The thriller begins at a London Underground station where teacher Bob Shaw spots a friend getting off a train.\u00a0 He is stunned because he had attended the man\u2019s funeral five weeks earlier. As Bob and his wife investigate, their lives come under threat and they are forced to flee their home, just outside Canterbury.<\/p>\n The Lazarus Charter is a sequel to Tony\u2019s previous book, the crime novel Smile Of The Stowaway, which was released in December 2018. In that book, the Kent couple, Bob and Anne, discover a stowaway beneath their motor home on returning to Canterbury from a holiday in France.<\/p>\n Instead of handing him to the authorities, the couple provide the smiling stranger with shelter and find him a job.\u00a0 Then he is accused of murder and the couple battle to clear his name.\u00a0 The book was inspired by a news story Tony wrote for the national papers in September 2014 about a stowaway found beneath a mobile home in Ashford, Kent.<\/p>\n Tony spent 43 years working as a journalist, mainly for the Sunday People.\u00a0 He has five grown-up children who all live in South Wales.\u00a0 \u00a0He is a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists.<\/p>\n The Lazarus Charter is available both as a paperback book or eBook from Amazon, publishers The Conrad Press and other established outlets.<\/p>\n Stan Sturgess, father of Dawn, said: \u2018I\u2019ve begun to read the book and I\u2019ve been impressed by what I\u2019ve read so far.\u2019\u00a0 His wife Caroline said: ‘It was a lovely gesture, dedicating the book to Dawn, and we hope it is very successful.’<\/p>\n Marina Litvinenko said: \u2018I have just started to read the book.\u00a0 I am very pleased Tony has dedicated the book to my husband.\u00a0 But it was poignant to me to read the dedication and find that both he and Dawn Sturgess were the same age, 44, when they died.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tony Bassett descends from #184B William Bassett as follows: William Bassett (b. 1480) John Bassett (b. 1509) and wife Joanne Henry Bassett (b. 1542) and wife Joan Vane Henry Bassett (b. 1572) and wife Joanne Johnson Henry Bassett (b. 1593) … Continue reading