China Edward Rutherfurd,

Hachette

By the author of the sweeping Paris, New York and London sagas, this novel is set around real events in 19th-century China. The Opium

Wars broke out when the West lacked silver to buy tea; adventurers resorting to smuggling opium. Rutherfurd’s cast of characters includes concubines and eunuchs and a favourite – ‘Lacquer Nail’. At seven he is walked to meet Grandfather in Beijing by his carpenter father who hopes he’ll give money, taking cakes from Mother. The gentle boy delights the old man, though Father is disappointed with just a copper coin for his lad. But the boy treasures it, as the old man treasured the beautiful paper around the cakes. When ‘Nail’ hears a merchant tell his son writing is the way to achieve, he studies men painting lacquer symbols in a studio. The owner offers him a job.