Tour dates, public lectures and other news
Lesley Downer, the author of The Shortest History of Japan, looks at different roles taken by women during that country’s long history: court ladies, warrior women and courtesans. She shows how, through the ages, they have found ways to use their skills to make their voices heard.[…]
Historian and journalist Lesley Downer’s new book, The Shortest History of Japan, has allowed the South End Green-based writer to bring together a lifetime of study. […]
Hugely enjoyed delving deep into Kyoto life in the glittering Momoyama period … Hideyoshi’s tea parties and cherry blossom parties and much else. Please have a listen! […]
The exciting, engrossing and thrilling story of the whole of Japanese history – 16,500 years in a few pages, from 14,500 BC (world’s first pottery) to yesterday, to make you think, ‘Wow, Japanese history is really exciting!’ […]
Hugely enjoyed talking about all things geisha with Kate Lister on the Betwixt the Sheets podcast … find out all about my life among the geisha and what geisha really do! […]
Happy to be included in Johny Pitts’ series The Failure of the Future on BBC Radio 4 – including my memories of the Tsutsumi Seibu empire, which I wrote about in my book The Brothers. […]
Out June 2024 in Australia and July 31st 2024 in the US and Canada.
The story of a small Asian country with an extraordinary aesthetic tradition that avoided colonization and overcame the devastation of World War II to become a highly prosperous modern force, while preserving its unique spirit and culture.
Watch Lesley Downer in conversation with Hamish Todd (Head of East Asian Collections) at the British Library.
