Location: Church of St Candida and Holy Cross, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, England
Cause of death: Murdered - poisoning from a ricin-filled pellet
Photo taken by: julia and keld
Bulgarian dissident writer who originally worked as a novelist and playwright in his native country until his defection in 1969. In 1962 Markov published the novel Men which won the annual award of the Union of Bulgarian Writers and he was subsequently accepted as a member of the Union, a prerequisite for a professional career in literature. The story collections A Portrait of My Double (1966) and The Women of Warsaw (1968) secured his place as one of the most talented young writers of Bulgaria.
After relocating to the West, he worked as a broadcaster and journalist where he conducted a campaign of sarcastic criticism against the Bulgarian regime. As a result of this, it has been speculated that the Bulgarian government may have decided to silence him. He died as a result of an incident on a London street when a pellet containing ricin was fired into his leg via an umbrella wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian secret police.
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