Author’s race against time stopped in tracks

AN AUTHOR has had her international book launch cancelled because of measures imposed to combat coronavirus.

Anne Coomes, from Bollington, has had her book Send me to the Nations published in the Kenyan city of Nairobi.

It is about the life of African evangelist Doctor Stephen Mbogo, who grew up in poverty but is now an influential figure who preaches in front of thousands of people.

He was due to take the book to a conference in California, which has now been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The work is a result of two years travelling to Kenya for interviews, followed by many hours in Bollington writing up the results.

It ended being a race against time to get it done to deadline with Anne writing 75,000 words in eight weeks to complete the work.

Anne said: “The book is not professionally published, but instead privately published for the use of Dr Mbogo.

“It will now circulate to his friends and family in churches around Nairobi.

“I may live and walk my dog in Bollington, but mentally I have been in Kenya since the end of December. I still feel a bit dazed.”

Anne met Dr Mbogo through their mutual work for African Enterprise, a missions agency which operates in nearly 50 countries across Africa.

Anne was concerned that having an overtly non-African name may affect the popularity of the book but these worries have proved unfounded.

She will return to Nairobi later this year to write further material.

Illustrations and the front cover of the book have been done by William Mather, who is originally from Henbury and now lives in Inverness, Scotland.

Anne is editor of the website Parish Pump and formerly the Church of England Newspaper.

She is also an

Anglican lay reader at St Oswald’s Church, in Bollington.