17 November: Vera Name Day

Today’s Latvian name day is Vera. Vera is a female first name of Russian origin. In Russian, Vera means faith, although it has also been said to mean truth, deriving from Latin. 10 famous Veras:

1. Vera Lynn, British singer known as “The Forces Sweetheart” during the Second World War. Her most famous song is probably We’ll meet Again.
2. Vera Duckworth, fictional character on the long running soap opera Coronation Street. She was married to Jack Duckworth.
3. Vera Maxwell, American fashion designer famous for 1940s sports wear.
4. Vera Leigh, a British spy during World War II who helped downed British airmen escape from behind enemy lines. She was executed by the Germans in 1944 at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
5. Vera Stanhope, fictional detective played by Brenda Blethyn in the TV series Vera, which is based on novels by Anne Cleeves.
6. Vera Putina, a Russian woman who claims Vladimir Putin is her long lost son. She lives in the village of Metekhi, about 18 kilometers from Gori, Georgia and says that Putin's father is a Russian mechanic called Platon Privalov, who got her pregnant while he was married to another woman. When she got married, her new husband made her give up her son and she left him with his grandparents. She claims these people are the "parents" Putin's official biography speaks of.
7. Vera Vague, spinster character in 1940s and 50s American radio, played by Barbara Jo Allen. Her catchphrase was “You dear boy!”
8. Véra Nabokov wife, editor, and translator of Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov claimed he "would have been nowhere without her." All his works are dedicated to her. Several times, when he threw his manuscript of Lolita on the fire, it was Véra who rescued it.
9. Vera Claythorne, a fictional character from Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None, which she described as the most difficult of her books to write. Claythorne is a young woman on leave from her position as a sports mistress at a girls' school. Once a governess employed by the Hamilton family, she was dismissed after her young charge, Cyril, drowned on her watch. She actually let the boy drown so his uncle Hugo could inherit the family estate and marry her. Hugo rejected her when he realised what she’d done. In a post-traumatic state after shooting another character, she hangs herself.
10. Vera Brittain, a nurse during the first world war, famous for her memoir, A Testament of Youth, published in 1933, about her experiences.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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