A Date for your Diary: Manchester – Japan Society North West on March 1st 2025
Talk: Court ladies, women warriors and courtesans
News & Events
Tour dates, public lectures and other news
A Date for your Diary: Alderney Lit Fest 2025 on March 28th & 29th
Festival Book Club: The Shortest History of Japan
Talk: Writing Unfamiliar History: the History of Japan
A Date for your Diary: Chichester – Talks At Six, Basil Shippam Centre on July 3rd
Talk: Japan’s Powerful Women
Author Interview – Adventures In Historyland Podcast
Talking to Joshua Provan about The Shortest History of Japan, and how she found the stories to make Japanese history more accessible than ever. […]
Silk Roads exhibition: Review In Historia Magazine
Lesley Downer, the author of The Shortest History of Japan, reviews the Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum, open until February, 2025. […]
Lesley Downer on Poetry in Japan’s Deep North – Personal Landscapes Podcast
Speaking about about Matsuo Basho’s haiku, mountain ascetics and Japan’s undiscovered north. […]
Talk at The Japan Society on 21st October
Not all shoguns and samurai. On Monday October 21st, I will be speaking to the Japan Society on some of the extraordinary women who populate Japanese history, starting with Himiko the Shaman Queen. […]
Travel in Old Japan: In Unseen Histories
In this piece Lesley Downer, an expert of Japanese culture and history and the author of The Shortest History of Japan and On the Narrow Road to the Deep North, explains how an advanced society sought to move without wheels.[…]
How Empresses Shaped Japan – Books on Asia Podcast 37
Lesley discusses her just-released The Shortest History of Japan: From Mythical Origins to Pop Culture Powerhouse, which provides a concise yet detailed account of Japanese history. […]
From the world’s first pots to Cool Japan: In Book Brunch
Lesley Downer on how she has told Japan’s history – in 50,000 words. […]