December 2 2024 - ChinaRhyming - Wallis in the World
Wallis is now out in the world..... Some reviews, round China in Wallis's footsteps, plus the Great Days of the Repulse Bay Hotel, China's e-commerce revolution and some rather similar book covers....
Wallis in the World
Well, Wallis’s Her Lotus Year is now out there - everywhere - in hardback, e-book and audiobook. Until a book is finally in the hands of the reviewers you never quite know how it will be received. Your own judgement is skewed and others often flatter rather than critique. Still, I seem to have done OK on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia…a little selection of quotes below….
French is a fine and compelling writer, acclaimed author of a dozen books about old China. His painstaking, forensic research proves beyond reasonable doubt that although there was some truth in these sly and scandalous tales, none of them could have involved Wallis: the dates simply do not add up. She was certainly no angel, but nor was she the monster created by an establishment whispering campaign.’ Financial Times
'In this briskly debunking book Paul French, an old 'China hand' himself, makes it clear that the woman who had been born plain old Bessie Warfield in Pennsylvania in 1896 did not sign a pact with the Devil during what she later called her 'lotus year’.’ - Kathryn Hughes, The Sunday Times
‘A new account of the months Simpson spent in China debunks the well-worn gossip about sexual adventures and opium addiction and even invites admiration for a ‘buccaneering’ woman’ The Observer
‘Paul French depicts a glitzy period the future Duchess of Windsor spent in China … The story of Wallis’s Chinese awakening is worth telling.’ The Daily Telegraph
‘French’s book — beautifully told through meticulous historical research and examination of contemporary literature and film — gives the reader a vivid picture of what China must have been like for an American expat in the 1920s, and in fact tells a more interesting story.’ The New York Times
‘ Her Lotus Years stays in the mind as a bright, shining, lively snapshot, delightful to read.’ Caroline Moorehead, The Spectator
The Great Days of the Repulse Bay Hotel
My latest long read for the South China Morning Post weekend magazine does spin-off from Her Lotus Year, but a lot of other people get mentions - Hemingway and Gellhorn, Emily Hahn, Eileen Chang, Wallis Simpson of course, and others… the great days of Hong Kong’s Repulse Bay Hotel…. read online here
Hey Wait….
Just received a copy of Rosemary Wakeman’s The Worlds of Victor Sassoon (University of Chicago Press) - looks excellent. But that cover image does look awfully familiar!!!
How did China’s e-commerce model become the best in the world?
Just how did China's e-commerce market become so sophisticated, and what lies in its future? A new book by Lizhi Liu - Click to Boom - looks for answers. I interviewed Lizhi for the China Britain Business Council magazine Focus…. Click here…
Across China with Wallis
I piece i wrote for the Times Luxx travel magazine on traveling across China in Wallis’s footsteps - some lovely old photos and brief guides to heritage you can still access in Shamian Island (Guangzhou), Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin… click here to read…
FYI
Details of my new book - Her Lotus Year: China, The Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson here
Remember I still blog at www.chinarhyming.com
And I’m now on BlueSky at @chinarhyming.bsky.social
I also still post a lot of images on my Instagram feed - @oldhshanghaipaul
And, all the books noted above are available from my Bookshop.org page - an online bookstore funding independent bookstores