Janet Hancock 
Beyond the Samovar 

‘Beyond the Samovar’ is a gripping, engaging story of escape, love and loss.In 1919, a young English couple, Livvy and Peter, leave Baku, which the previous year had become the capital of an independent Azerbaijan. While Livvy is reluctant to leave her home, Peter sees no future for Britons in the new country and treats their escape as an adventure. With their baby, they bluff and bribe their way across Bolshevik and White Russian territory to Archangel on the north coast of Russia, hoping to board a British ship. Only two of them ever manage to reach home.About the Author:Born in Worcestershire, Janet Hancock has lived in Dorset since 1991. For many years she taught English in the south of England to Arab and African officers. The germ of Beyond the Samovar was a newspaper reference to an unnamed Englishwoman caught up in the 1917 revolution in Baku, which at that time was in Russia. Janet enjoys choral singing and cultivating her courtyard garden.