Olivia Forsyth Langton, widow of former Chronicle editor-in-chief Eric Langton, is to go ahead with a long-scheduled speech to the Chester Business Club, because she said “It’s what Eric would have wanted.”
Eric, whom she described as the love of her life, lost a seven-year battle with cancer in August in Tuscany, where he and Olivia had bought their dream villa.
Olivia is to address a dinner at the Mercure Abbots Well Hotel on Wednesday, October 19, hosted by the club during the Chester Literature Festival
The talk is about her former life as a double agent during the apartheid years in South Africa, including being incarcerated in a prison camp in Northern Angola, which she describes in her recently published autobiography Agent 407: A South African Spy Breaks Her Silence.
“Eric used to refer to me as ‘the spy who loves me’,” said Olivia, “and he was very proud of me writing the book.”
Olivia shocked pupils and staff at The Grange School in Hartford when she revealed her life as a spy in a now famous assembly at the end of nine years as an English teacher at the school.
Previously she had taught at The County High School, Leftwich, St Chad’s in Runcorn and Ellesmere Port Catholic High School.
Olivia met Eric when she worked as a feature writer on the North Wales Weekly News at Llandudno Junction after moving to the UK in 2001.
Tickets for the dinner are available from the Chester Business Club through their website - http://www.chesterbusinessclub.co.uk/events/
