Lesley is an author, historian and all-round Japan buff. Her mother was Chinese and her father a professor of Chinese, so she grew up in a house full of books on Asia. She ended up almost by accident in Japan and became fascinated by the country, its culture and its people. She lived there on and off for some fifteen years and often goes back. She has written many books, non-fiction and fiction, about it.
She’s been lucky enough to travel all over the world to write and also gives lectures – at the Japan Society, Asia House, the Royal Geographic Society, the British Museum, the Japan Society in New York and Japan Societies and Asia Societies across the US and the UK. She lectured on a vast residential ship called The World that circles the globe forever like a modern-day Flying Dutchman. She was the historical consultant for Northern Ballet’s spectacular 2020 ballet Geisha and appears on Netflix in Age of the Samurai: Battle for Japan and in Pernel Media’s Sekigahara.
She taught for four years on the MA programme in Creative Writing (non-fiction) at City University, London, and much enjoyed it.
Lesley’s newest book, The Shortest History of Japan, is the gripping saga of 16,500 years of Japanese history, from the world’s first potters, through shaman queens, shoguns, samurai and the extraordinary Floating World of the Tokugawa Renaissance, to the dark valley of World War II and the economic boom that followed.
Peter Tasker in the Nikkei Asia wrote of it: ‘Sharp, pacey… clear and informative… What could have been a dry recital of names and dates becomes a parade of colourful characters, remarkable achievements and innovations.’
The Sydney Morning Herald in Eight New Books to Read This Weekend wrote: ‘… This overview sketches the often-turbulent political and social environment out of which, like the proverbial lotus flowering in the mud, Japan’s unique culture and sensibility bloomed in all its manifestations, from Zen, haiku and the tea ceremony to kabuki, anime and manga.’
Lesley is also very happy that her first book, On the Narrow Road to the Deep North, has been reissued in a handsome new edition by Eland.
Lesley has written four novels, The Shogun Quartet, set in the mid-nineteenth century, the most tumultuous period in Japanese history. Her non-fiction includes Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World and Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha who Seduced the West, the story of the model for Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
The Brothers was a New York Times ‘Book of the Year’. On the Narrow Road to the Deep North was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year Award. It was televised by WNET and Channel 4 under the title Journey to a Lost Japan and by NHK as Journey of the Heart. Lesley also presented and wrote A Taste of Japan, a six part series on Japanese cooking, shown on BBC2 in 1991.
And a new book is on its way – Rice, Miso & Pickles, the record of a love affair with Japan seen through its food and a practical guide to mastering one of the world’s great cuisines.
Lesley lives in London with her husband, the author Arthur I. Miller.
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