We step off the bus at Magome and look in disbelief at the steep cobbled slope winding up the hill in front of us. In the past there would have been scrawny porters elbowing each other out of the way, vying to cart our bags. Had we been great lords we would have been carried … Read more
Forthcoming lectures: Saturday June 26th 3.00 – 5.00 pm Ipswich Literary Tea, Ipswich Arts Festival, Arlington Brasserie, Ipswich, Suffolk Box Office 01473 433100 £8 (£6 concessions) Law and disorder: Making an impression throughout history. Discussion over tea and cakes with Giles Kristian, author of Sons of Thunder, and Paul Sussman, author of The Hidden Oasis. … Read more
The Last Concubine just came out in Thai. This is the beautiful cover. Big in Thailand!
Have just finished David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I reviewed for the Literary Review. Total fabulous (unsurprisingly), a firework of a book that sparks and crackles along. You’re totally gripped from the very first page! Something that other readers might not know is that it’s also based very firmly in … Read more
Friday May 14th 11 am Lincoln Book Festival, Lincoln Drill Hall, Lincoln Festival Box Office tel 01522 873 894 £4 (£2 concessions) History panel: Law and disorder: How to make an impression throughout history. With Giles Kristian, author of Sons of Thunder, and Manda Scott, author of Rome: The Emperor’s Spy *** Tuesday May 18th … Read more
Spoke on Fighting for the shogun: the story of a ship, some samurai, nine French officers and the battle for Hokkaido – at the Japan Society, at a very convivial Japanese pub called The Crane and the Tortoise (suitably auspicious name) on Gray’s Inn Road. My talk was followed by sushi and sake and a … Read more
Launched The Courtesan and the Samurai on March 25th and now hoping for a keen wind to fill her sails! The launch took place at Daunts bookshop on Marylebone High Street, in London, and there was a good-sized gathering of friends, colleagues, my publisher and my agent, as well as Colin the master swordsman, who … Read more
Wednesday April 21st 6.30 pm Japan Society Crane and Tortoise (room to rear of main bar), 39 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8PR tel 0207 828 6330 Illustrated talk: Fighting for the shogun: the story of a ship, some samurai, nine French officers and the battle for Hokkaido. £7.50 including a light Japanese buffet following … Read more
Even before Japan opened to the west in 1853, westerners were beginning to discover Japan’s extraordinary culture. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth Japonisme was hugely in vogue. Across Europe and the United States, people filled their houses with fans, screens, blue and white porcelain, netsuke and samurai swords … Read more
Japan, 1868: the last shogun has been defeated, the age of the emperors is about to begin – and in Japan’s frozen north a diehard band of loyalists plans a desperate last stand. Hana is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and very vulnerable. When enemy soldiers attack her house … Read more