by Anthony Grey
I also thank Ian Chapman for his insight, understanding and friendship over what is now more than a decade of publishing collaboration; and I’m newly grateful to Peter Lavery for the astuteness of his editorial eye. Michael Sissons, stalwart agent and friend for some twenty-seven years, orchestrated his customary notes of creative encouragement at just the right moments during a longer than usual period of gestation. Enormous amounts of assiduous research in that same period were always willingly undertaken by Angela Hind. She also supervised the manuscript tirelessly through its several drafts. For this and very much more besides, I am greatly in her debt.
Finally and very sadly, Shirley, my wife of twenty- two years, lost a brave, harrowing and extended battle against cancer in the very last stages of this novel’s preparation. During work on all my ten previous books from Hostage in Peking in 1969-70 down to Tokyo Bay, Shirley invariably provided a judicious blend of encouragement and constructive criticism. This support continued even after our divorce - which thankfully led us into a new and increasingly warm friendship. So here I lovingly acknowledge once more her ever-wise counsel: invisible traces of this exist in every book I’ve published to date. She is, and always will be, greatly missed - both by me and by our daughters Clarissa and Lucy.
London, Spring 1996
Worldwide acclaim for Anthony Grey’s novels
Peking and Saigon
Peking
‘Magnificent epic novel on modern China. The book is worth reading solely as a factual reminder of the chaos and calamity of China as a quarter of the world’s people struggled and suffered towards modernity in the stormy and cruel decades between 1920 and 1980’ Toronto Star
‘A moving, authentic, tautly written saga of forty years of blood, sweat and tears in China and of Europeans and Chinese trying to align private and public values amidst it all... Conveys brilliantly the workings of the Chinese Communist system in its dealings with foreigners and dissidents’ Los Angeles Times
‘The mental torture Grey underwent as a prisoner of the Chinese has done little to shake his love of China and he has now transformed his experiences into Peking, a novel set against the last seventy years of the country’s tumultuous history. His depth of feeling makes this a compelling epic’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Anthony Grey’s gripping fiction based on meticulously attributed sources is part epic, part blockbuster. . . A sometimes melodramatic but nevertheless moving chronicle .
Profoundly sincere theme’ The Times
‘Peking is a blockbuster. . . an excellent read, panoramic in scope and often powerful in effect... Fascinating stuff: but what lingers on is the teller of the tale, the voice behind it’ Financial Times
‘This English writer has hit upon a winning formula for historical novels that rest on solid research and are painstakingly balanced’ Japan Times
‘Horrifyingly vivid description of the Long March. . . Grey’s message, spoken by Kellner to a dying Mao Tse-tung, is that the Chinese revolution triumphed due to the indomitable spiritual strength of its people and not the shrill slogans of a paranoid demagogue’ Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Peking is exceptional... the reader will emerge with much new knowledge, only slightly breathless at page 645’ Irish Times
‘It is a violent, chaotic and often depressing China that Grey presents, but his characters - the men notably - come alive’ Independent
‘Gives Mao Tse-tung aid Chou En-lai vivid personalities and robust dialogue. . irresistibly readable’ South China Morning Post
‘A remarkable story of love, hunger and survival on the Long March. The best airport read of all’ Punch
‘Skilfully narrated... The book is a parable of China and the West’s love affair with it’ Far Eastern Economic Review
‘Grey, a superbly accomplished writer, weaves a masterly tale of triumph and tragedy... marvellous detail.., erudite, imaginative and instructive sequel to his best-selling Saigon’ Western Australian
‘Not only is Peking a novel crammed with detail and drama, it is written with such understanding arid authority that it is history - terror, confusion, faith and love. What more could you want?’ Melbourne Report
Saigon
‘By using a technique of historic progression author Anthony Grey does for the Vietnam wars what Leo Tolstoy did for the Napoleonic wars. Indeed this masterwork could well be called the War and Peace of our age’ San Francisco Chronicle
‘One of the most memorable love stories of our time has been delivered with a firm literate hand by Anthony Grey who with this novel establishes himself as one of the finest storytellers plying his trade today... It’s a book which no doubt will stand the test of time’ West Coast Review of Books
‘It is a melding of fact and fiction: the modern historical novel which is more likely to provide many people with an understanding of the facts than any purely factual book’ Financial Times
‘The author’s professional involvement with South-East Asia makes this a blockbuster of unusually painful intensity’ The Times
‘Saigon is an epic novel of terrible importance. . . Its dominant theme is the ease with which the best instincts and perceptions of individuals first can be neutralised then engulfed by their institutions... His style can be described as “literally gut-wrenching” and his point of view as enlightened and objective. He is in short a virtuoso of the epic novel genre. Like James Michener and James Clavell, Mr. Grey is a master storyteller. Unlike them, however, he has something pertinent to say and does s in distinguished fashion’ Kansas City Star
‘This 816-page novel is gripping, grisly and the single most violent book I have ever read. . . Yet Grey to his credit has brought to his material a certain moral vision and, in certain sections at least, a rare quality something I would call compassion’ Toronto Star
‘History and human passion, a lesson and an adventure at the same time... you’ll leave the office early and stay up late to devour it’ Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Rattling good piece of entertainment.., a blockbuster for bargain hunters. Its price, size, pace, colour, information and entertainment make it a recommended companion for the summer holidays’ The Age (Melbourne)
‘The book makes a valid claim as the Vietnamese equivalent to Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead written about the Second World War’ Nashville Banner
‘What Shogun did for Japan, Saigon does for Vietnam. ft makes it historically and practically understandable’ Chattanooga News Free Press
‘Saigon is an explanation long overdue to the American people. I recommend this book to clerics, statesmen, philosophers, politicians and to every single one of the 8,686,298 veterans who survived America’s involvement in that crazy Southeast Asian war’ Arizona Desert Sentinel
‘Saigon is much more than a book. It is a political statement, a great adventure story; an accurate window on the war- ravaged country of Vietnam. . . The author, Anthony Grey, has produced a masterpiece’ Leatherneck Magazine
‘Of epic dimensions, the book combines fact and fiction jn vivid scenes that trace the genesis and outcome of intervention by foreign powers in Vietnam... Grey creates a feeling of living history by following the exploits of four families in Saigon whose lives intersect across the cultures and through five decades of change, upheaval and ultimate destruction... His compelling saga vroves very satisfying’ Booklist (Chicago)
‘Because it was so avoidable, America’s involvement in Vietnam’s civil war is the most tragic or au the horrors Grey recounts . . . Even a lesson learned as late as this may accomplish some good; that is Saigon’s value’ Cleveland Plain Dealer
‘The novel is continuously absorbing, suspenseful and informative. Grey succeeds admirably in putting the first and second Indochina wars in historical perspective’ Publishers Weekly
‘Long-overdue epic masterpiece of twentieth century Vietnam. The author balances the political intrigues and wartime horrors with a story of human sensitivity and love’ Advance Library Journal (New York)
‘Saigon is a splendid epic which must surely lend itself to major film or television treatment.. - a great book’ The Citizen (Gloucester)
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