International Acclaim for Anthony Greys Peking
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 .. Grey handles family life with great sensitivity... He feels Chinas grandeur. He knows its cruelty. He is fascinated with its power to sway the foreigner, to make a plaything of him, to inject him for life with a lovehate Potion that keeps him awestruck even as he suffers and fails to understand. Ross Terrill LOS ANGELES TIMES
Grey throws real and imaginary British and Chinese characters together during these events in a most inventive manner, true to the spirit of history
This English writer has hit upon a winning formula for historical novels that rest on solid research and are painstakingly balanced. THE JAPAN TIMES
Horrifyingly vivid description of the Long March Greys 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. This message as well as rise account of the Long March lift Peking above the soggy sagas that fuel the mini-series machine. PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER
Peking is exceptional. The first part is an enthralling reconstruction of the Long March which not only describes the horror of during six thousand miles of mountains, frozen swamps, deserts, river crossings and enemy attacks, but gives a clear idea of how it came about The second part which takes place during the Cultural Revolution is almost t as engrossing and the reader will emerge with much new knowledge, only slightly breathless at page 645. THE IRISH TIMES
Peking is a very good novel... The main character of two families are interwoven with historical figures in a way that is fascinating.
This extraordinary book rewards the reader with accurate details of the hardships endured by the Communists on the Lon March, with Insights into the emotion that led to some of the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution and with understanding of the power and the attraction Mao Tse-tung had for his people. CHATTANOOGA NEWS--FREE PRESS
Perhaps the most descriptive novel of the Chinese Communist Long March, Peking is certainly one of the best-researched works of fiction... Seldom does a novel adhere so well to history yet remain so objective on such controversial facts. Grey has written a classic, one which those who would understand China today should surely read.
SUNDAY STARNEWS Pasadena, California
Grey has done a masterful job... well written and exciting -- definitely recommended.
THE LIBRARY JOURNAL New York
It is a violent, chaotic and often depressing China that Grey presents, but his characters the men notably come alive.
Jonathan Mirsky THE INDEPENDENT London
Gives Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai vivid personalities and robust dialogue which, given the paucity of material on actual conversations on the Long March route, is pure Anthony Grey: irresistibly readable. Mark Graham SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Anthony Grey is a versatile author, best known for his novel Saigon, which examines events in war-torn Vietnam. But Peking, his fifth novel, will undoubtedly be one of the major literary achievements of 1988 and consolidate his reputation as a distinguished novelist. BAY OF PLENTY TIMES, NEW ZEALAND
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 worlds people struggled and suffered towards modernity in the stormy and cruel decades between 1920 and 1980. The reader is placed quite simply and brilliantly in sympathy with the human aims of the Communist revolution.
TORONTO STAR
Peking is a masterly novel of Chinas revolution... Anthony Greys handling of this unforgettably poignant story is without question superb. HOBART HERALD TRIBUNE
Outstanding... can you imagine a 645-page novel without profanity or steamy love scenes? But thats hat Anthony Grey has accomplished in the story of Jakob Kellner, a young English missionary who is captured by Maos Red Army at the start of the Long March in 1934... At the beginning Kellner is a poster model of muscular Christianity ... Through the years he grows from a plasticsaint kind of man to a more modest state of being, one of balance, sanity, serenity and realized human love in the face of a shifting and violent and mostly hateful world. SUNDAY RECORD New York
Anthony Grey has every reason to be cross with the Chinese who locked him, then a Reuters man, in his room for two years during the Cultural Revolution. And yet he shows considerable affection for China and its Communist leaders in Peking the second novel in his Asia trilogy.. - A remarkable story of love, hunger and survival on the Long March. The best airport read of all. PUNCH London
In the tradition of Mandarin and Tai-Pan, Peking adds another dimension to China and the Chinese... The characterizations are excellent and the intricate plotting is deftly done. The novel is a skillful work that is difficult to put down - - Score a success for Anthony Grey. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
Peking is a blockbuster - . - good, full of interesting facts, an excellent read, panoramic in scope and often powerful in effect. - Fascinating stuff: but what lingers on is the teller of the talc, the voice behind it. The FINANCIAL TIMES London
Anthony Greys gripping fiction based on meticulously attributed sources is part epic, part blockbuster. - . A sometimes melodramatic but nevertheless moving chronicle .. - The Long March inward into the spirit - .. is the authors most desirable theorem... Profoundly sincere theme... Grand soap opera perhaps. Deep, not at all soapy waters. THE TIMES London
The mental torture Grey underwent 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 countrys tumultuous history. His depth of feeling makes this a compelling epic. THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH London
Skillfully narrated... Grey is good at catching an historical mood and at describing the complex relations between ordinary Europeans and Chinese thrown together by history - . - The web of Peking is impressive. The book is a parable of China and the Wests love affair with it. FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW Hong Kong
It is hard to imagine a more compelling backdrop for a novel than twentieth-century China... Anthony Grey does not squander that backdrop in his epic novel Peking, rather embellishes it with wellfleshed characters, violence, sex (including unintentional incest) and plenty of intergenerational, inter-cultural and class conflict .. Greys description of the Long March its privations, acts of heroism and cowardice is masterful. ANDERSON INDEPENDANT-MAIL South Carolina
Grey, a superbly accomplished writer, weaves a masterly tale of triumph and tragedy with the latter winning hands down... it seems complicated but Greys deep understanding of the Chinese psyche and his professional involvement in South East Asia gives him the authority to capture poignantly the essence of ideological, personal and cultural conflict with marvelous detail .. - erudite, imaginative and instructive sequel to his best-selling Saigon. Edward Masson THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN
