Laura Leroy inhabits the two realms of her Oxford past and Peking present. Into her current world of exotic beauty and brutality comes Vinstead, a professor from Cambridge and a reminder of all she has left behind.

A picnic party leaves for the hills near Peking, and tensions rise as Laura cautiously responds to Vinstead's attraction and their fragile world comes under threat.

Ann Bridge - Ann Bridge was born in 1889, and became the wife of an English diplomat. She wrote such acclaimed novels as The Ginger Griffin, Illyrian Spring, Enchanter's Nightingale and Singing Waters. She died in 1974.

Linda Kelly - Linda Kelly has written widely on late 18th and early 19th century subjects. Her books include Women of the French Revolution, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and The Young Romantics. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Wordsworth Trust.

---