Trans World Radio joy at book response

I was delighted to receive an unexpected email from Trans World Radio in America this week in connection with my book, God’s Secret Listener.

It’s the true story of Berti Dosti, a captain and radio specialist in Enver Hoxha’s Albanian army, whose job in the 1970s and 80s was to listen in to the world’s airwaves to give the Stalinist dictator early warning in case Britain, America or Russia were about to invade.

Berti, pictured below, never found an enemy signal, but he stumbled across a radio programme broadcast by Trans World Radio and the European Christian Mission into the Balkan country which had been closed to the rest of the world for 47 years and had banned Christianity.

At great risk to himself Berti became a secret listener and after communism fell in the late 1980s Captain Dosti became Pastor Dosti of a newly-revived Albanian church and the principal of The Victory School in Lushnje, which now teaches English to 750 Albanian youngsters every year.

Trans World Radio in America were delighted with the story and bought 250 copies of my book last year to use in a direct mail effort to supporters and potential new ones.

In this week’s email, Bob Hall, Director of Donor Services of TWR Americas, wrote: “Response to your book God’s Secret Listener was very positive when we used it as a donor premium in our direct mail efforts.

 “Since the book has such a close connection to TWR and was very well received by our constituents, we would very much like to use this book on a regular basis.”

TWR, which broadcasts in 230 languages to more than 160 countries with millions of listeners, wondered if we could print the book in the USA.

After speaking to Tony Collins, editorial director of the Monarch division of Lion Hudson who published the book, I was delighted to be able to tell Bob that we already print God’s Secret Listener in the USA and we could provide him a sizeable order.

The story of how American Paul E Freed started Trans World Radio in 1954 and how they came to be broadcasting from Monte Carlo into Albania is told in my book.

To order a signed copy for £7.50 in the UK or £8.50 anywhere in the world including postage email John@jbutterworth.plus.com