Empress Orchid (Anchee Min)

Empress Orchid (2004) is a novel by Anchee Min which was first published in Great Britain in 2004. It is written in first person and is a sympathetic account of the life of Empress Dowager Cixi - from her humble beginnings to her rise as the Empress Dowager.

Names within the story are different in spelling but retain the same pronouciation - allowing the reader to identify each relevant character to his or her real life counterpart.Empress Orchid was also a 2006 nominee for the Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year Award.

Wikipedia.

-Our grateful thanks to actress,Joan Chen,who arranged for this extraordinary author to come to the West.She began her adult life in a labour camp!

I read this  fictionalised biography of Tzu Hsi,China's last Emperess,while staying with a relative.I couldn't put it down,and am now reading the sequel.I must say that my heart went out to all those trapped in the Forbidden City,awaiting the attentions of just one man!The previous wife,kept limbless in a bell jar since the late Emperor's death-she had 'monopolised his attention!'- was one indication of how the land lay.Put into the scenario a young girl who spoke her mind with  a good sense of humour to-boot and a young man tired of ceremony and in need of real friendship and you have a recipe for even more trouble.....