John Namnik

The Latvian, Andrej Yakovlevitch Namnik, landowner and bachelor approaching middle age,
takes time out from his business trip to Russia to take in the sights of the magnificent city
of St. Petersburg. Within twenty four hours he rescues a beautiful Bohemian woman, Marie
Subrtova, finds himself involved in a Revolutionist meeting, escapes a subsequent police raid only to find himself locked up in the dungeon prisons of the Fortress of St Peter and St Paul.
Marie, a young striking musician and singer, reciprocates Andrej’s loving attentions but Andrej is sentenced to exile to work on the Great Siberian Railway.
The Bear and The Diva is at once a love story and an historical adventure with events supported
by historical documents. It tells the story of the re-uniting of Andrej and Marie and their
various involvement in murder, several wars, extreme deprivation, terrorism and fortunes both
great and tragic.
Andrej and Marie will take readers on an emotional ride from the frozen steppes of Siberia to the tropics of Singapore and on to their new home in Australia. What happens to their little
Amelia, the apple of Andrej’s eye and the only girl amid four brothers? How does the Namnik
family find themselves one child short and can they get him back? Will Marie get to sing with
Dame Nellie Melba when she returns from her tour in Java? And, what would prompt Andrej,
at age 59, to enlist in the Australian Army?
This narrative does not conclude on the last page. Readers can look forward to a follow-up
book, The Sable Provenance, that will continue the Namnik story in the context of a wider
ancestry entwined with convicts, Celts, nobles and rogues.