My most long-suffering companions on this voyage, however, have been my family. My sister, Kate Bain, for coming with me to China. My brother, Toby Howell, and my parents, David and Davina Howell, for being pestered for facts morning, noon, and night. My grandmother, Prue de Winton, and my aunt, Jane Townsend, for helping them to provide them. My mother-in-law, Felicity Osborne, for her expertise on all things foodie. My children, Luke and Liberty, for letting me work; their nanny, Suzie, for keeping them so blissfully happy while I did so. And, last but far from least, my husband, George, for his reading and fact-finding, for his opinion so gently offered, and for putting up with my erratic hours and moods as Lilla’s Feast neared its end.
London, January 2004
FRANCES OSBORNE is a former lawyer, stockbroker, and freelance journalist turned full-time writer. She lives in London with her husband, George Osborne, a member of Parliament, and their two young children. Lilla’s Feast is her first book.
2005 Random House Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 2004 by Frances Osborne
Reading group guide copyright © 2005 by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. READER’S CIRCLE and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
“Lilla’s War with China” by Frances Osborne was originally published in The Spectator in September 2004.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Condè Nast Publications Ltd. for permission to reprint “She’ll Go Far . . . East” by Melinda Stevens, originally published in Tatler, copyright © The Condè Nast Publications Ltd. .
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Osborne, Frances.
Lilla’s feast: one woman’s story of love and war
in the Orient / Frances Osborne.
p. cm.
1. Casey, Lilla, 1882–1983. 2. British—China—Biography.
3. British—India—Biography. 4. World War, 1939–1945—
Personal narratives, British. 5. World War, 1939–1945—
Prisoners and prisons, Japanese. 6. Prisoners of war—Great
Britain—Biography. 7. Prisoners of war—China—Biography.
8. Great Britain—Biography. I. Title.
CT788.C285O83 2004
951’.0042’0092—dc22
[B] 2004046121
www.thereaderscircle.com
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-43139-4
v3.0
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