Ken Follett pens tribute to Notre Dame with profits going to reconstruction fund
The historical fiction writer will explore the building’s history and significance in the new work.
Best-selling novelist Ken Follett is to publish a book about the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with proceeds going to the fund behind its reconstruction.
The spy thriller and historical fiction writer, 69, made a number of media appearances in the wake of the fire which weakened but did not entirely destroy the famous building.
Follett has pledged to donate both profits and royalties from the short book – which covers Notre Dame’s history and Follett’s own experience of seeing it burn – to the French Heritage Foundation.
He said: “If people cried on April 15, in Paris but also all over the world, it is because something very important, something intimate, was being destroyed under their eyes.
“And because we are the heirs of the cathedral’s builders, I want to take part in Notre Dame’s rebuilding.”
The building will remain closed to the public for years after the fire which destroyed its roof and knocked over its spire last month.
Cecile Boyer-Runge, chief executive officer of Editions Robert Laffont, the French publishing house behind the book, said: “Ken Follett took inspiration from Notre Dame, to share his passion for cathedrals with his readers.
“He’s showed solidarity at once and tells us again in this new text the powerful and ancestral link that connects us to Notre Dame.”
The tribute to Notre Dame will be published on June 13 2019.
