A Biography of Cao Cao
Rafe de Crespigny is an Australian sinologist, now aged 90. He specialises in the history of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. His…

This is an excellent book on how the men of the Indian Civil Service worked and lived from Chota hazri to sundown; how a mere…
View More Excellent history – The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian RajIt is appropriate that I finished reading this book at the stroke of midnight 14 August 2007. This first book by the author is a…
View More A wonderful book – Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an EmpireWilliam Dalrymple is one of my favourite authors. This is his latest book. It is a travel book. There are 9 chapters on his conversations…
View More A good travel book – Nine Lives: Encounters with the Holy in Modern IndiaLu Xun is famous for his short stories which point out the lack of compassion and lack of honesty in Chinese society during late Imperial…
View More Excellent translation – The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu XunThis book would be interesting for a reader looking for a rollicking and layman history of Shanghai from 1842 (the year when Shanghai was forced…
View More Interesting history – Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City 1842-1949This cd is such a treat. All of us have all the songs before. What makes this cd special is the bantering Barbra had with…
View More Review – One Night Only: Barbra Streisand & Quartet at Village VanguardThis is the story of Richard Maurice Tinkler an ordinary Englishman who after fighting for his country in World war one found that his country…
View More Pre-World War 2 – Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in ShanghaiThe US is called mei guo – the Beautiful Country — by the Chinese long before the current trade war and the hostile relationship arising…
View More The Soong Sisters – Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century ChinaThis book could be better. The author obviously knows a lot and has done a lot of research. Unfortunately, the editing left much to be…
View More Interesting – Moral Combat: A History of World War IIA 2009 movie based on Tolstoy’s final year; The Last Station is based on a novel by Jay Parini published in 1993. Unfortunately, this movie…
View More Tolstoy’s last year – The Last Station