A spokesperson for Wiley said: “We take all allegations of authorship abuse very seriously and thank the individuals who brought this to our attention.

But at home he drove the Romanian economy into the ground, presided over an appalling human rights record, cut funding for science and medicine, and constructed a shameless personality cult around himself.A gripping, intelligent, utterly-of-the-moment thriller' EMMA STONEX, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters Clogg, Richard. “Let Us Now Praise a Famous Woman: The Questionable Wisdom of British Institutions in Honouring Elena Ceausescu in the Late 1970s.” New Scientist, Jan. 1990, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12517004-500-forum-let-us-now-praise-a-famous-woman-the-questionable-wisdom-of-british-institutions-in-honouring-elena-ceausescu-in-the-late-1970s/.

We are well aware that these titles have ended up in your catalogue through no fault of your own. However, we consider this correction of the scientific record to be crucial.” Asma’s parents arrived in London in the 1970s in search of better opportunities. The family remained religious in exile: her father attended Friday prayers and her mother discarded her hijab only after Asma married. Friends describe the family as culturally conservative but eager for their children to assimilate. At her local Church of England primary school Asma was known as Emma. “You’d be hard-pressed to recognise her as a Syrian,” a neighbour recalled.She was also effective. “It was surprising how many times she said ‘I’d like something to happen’, and it happened,” said someone who worked for her in Damascus for six years. Her staff kept to the punishing schedule she’d grown accustomed to at J.P. Morgan: the office opened at 6am and work continued into the evening. Officials knew to consult Asma, not the culture minister, on major questions. The regime’s forces have killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians, and tortured more than 14,000 people to death. Half the population have fled their homes, precipitating the greatest refugee crisis since the second world war. Iran and Turkey, as well as America and Russia, have fought proxy battles for influence on Syrian soil. Throughout the Arab world the hopeful dreams of a decade ago have been crushed, but nowhere more bloodily than in Syria.

The "trial" that sealed the Ceausecus' fate was perhaps the perfect foil for the decades of falsification and fraud that defined Elena's scientific career. Behr calls the proceedings "farcical" and it is clear that the prosecutors were performing an act of restitution that the entire nation desperately needed. However, Laura’s parents who fled the countries dictatorship when she was a child are adamant that she refuses the case, and this is where the story really takes off. Laura’s parents won’t tell her why they fled nor will they explain why she shouldn’t defend Marija Popa - which means Laura must accept the case and go to Yanussia to find the truth for herself. An unconventional legal thriller and absorbing debut that is as satisfyingly complex in both its plotting and moral conclusions’ EXPRESS In theory, Asma could have gone to London. There were offers of safe passage, apparently accompanied by handsome rewards from Gulf states. The British government repeatedly stated that, as a British citizen, they couldn’t prevent her entering the country – which some observers interpreted as a discreet offer of protection. Even in London, the atmosphere was uninviting. Protesters gathered outside her family home in Acton and smeared red paint on the door. Queen’s College scrubbed her name from its list of honoured alumnae.It was a world in which everything was dictated to you,” he said. “The efforts of the Ceaușescus to pay off foreign debt meant they wanted to avoid any imports which required currency … Everything from oranges to bananas disappeared … And everything was under strict control. You could not sacrifice a cow in your village. It was illegal. You could go to prison if you got caught with some meat.” That seed was watered by a Saturday Night Live sketch, not about Melania Trump but Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka. It was a parody perfume advert for “Complicit: the fragrance for the woman who could stop all this – but won’t”. Reportedly stung by the bit, which starred Scarlett Johansson, Ivanka Trump told CBS News: “If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact then I’m complicit.” Pergamon, which was owned by Robert Maxwell, also published hagiographic biographies of several eastern bloc leaders, including one on the Romanian dictator titled: Nicolae Ceaușescu: Builder of Modern Romania and International Statesman (1983).

The book combined real world law terminology (and British law firms) to deliver an accurate and thought-provoking look into who society deems monsters and who we give free passes to. How we define history and how we allow it to shape our present and our future. How money and status enables access to creating an illusion of innocence. Are any of us innocent? How do we truly define innocence? Elena began attending night-school courses in chemistry at the Bucharest Municipal Adult Education Institute. She was soon expelled because she cheated on an exam and never received a bachelor's degree. In fact, the teacher who oversaw the infamous exam "lived in fear of his life for decades afterward" (Behr 140).

RATING: 5/5 STARS

An unconventional legal thriller and absorbing debut that is as satisfyingly complex in both its plotting and moral conclusions' EXPRESS Yet, in reality, Elena's success was a fiction. Her reputation was falsely built up thanks to a fraudulent PhD, appointments to Central Committee positions, and extensive propaganda—all helped along by the intervention of the Securitate, Romania's brutal secret police. The path to prestige