Blogs in August 2024

The Shortest History of Japan 21st August 2024

Ever since US Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its borders in 1853, the culture of this remarkable and distant archipelago has enriched western life. At the same time the country has embraced foreign institutions from baseball to...

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The Samurai’s Daughter: The Shogun Quartet #4 8th September 2016

In the brave new Japan of the 1870s, Taka and Nobu meet as children and fall in love; but their relationship will test the limits of society. Unified after a bitter civil war, Japan is rapidly turning into a...

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The Last Concubine: The Shogun Quartet #2 8th September 2016

Japan, 1865, the women’s palace in the great city of Edo. Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man – the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is...

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The Shogun’s Queen: The Shogun Quartet #1 8th September 2016

Only one woman can save her world from barbarian invasion but to do so will mean sacrificing everything she holds dear – love, loyalty and maybe life itself . . . Japan, and the year is 1853. Growing up...

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Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World 8th September 2016

Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, the geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly to Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha....

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