by Paul French
First published 2021
Paul French explores the lives of eighteen remarkable individuals who made their way to Peking during the first fifty years of the twentieth century. The author examines both the wealthy and the desperate who found themselves in China's capital before the communist revolution. Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth fortune heiress, arrived with her princely husband. Mona Monteith came with nothing and survived through prostitution. Wallis Simpson held gatherings at the Grand Hotel while novelist JP Marquand observed the social scene. Hollywood writer Harry Hervey walked the ancient Tartar Wall seeking creative inspiration. Edgar and Helen Foster Snow became the city's most celebrated couple in 1935. Martha Sawyers dedicated herself to supporting China's resistance against Japanese invasion during World War II. French reconstructs a vanished world where East met West in complex and often surprising ways. These stories reveal how ordinary and extraordinary people navigated life in a city caught between tradition and modernity, between empire and revolution.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water
Setting: China, Peking
Period: 20th Century
320 pages · Paperback · Blacksmith Books