Extract: The Shanghai Wife is thrilling historical fiction inspired by life

Do you like your history pure and unadulterated, or do you find you learn more from a novel than from a learned tome?

I have to say I learn from both; it all depends on the writing. So I read with interest in the author’s notes to The Shanghai Wife, that Emma Harcourt used the historical events that occurred in her grandmother’s life to set her novel historically.

Emma says: “This novel is a work of fiction although it takes as its inspiration my grandmother’s story. She was born and died in Australia but as a young woman she lived in Shanghai in 1925-1926 with her husband, my grandfather who captained boats on the Yangtze River.

“My grandfather, Captain A V Harcourt, wrote a navigational account of the river and I used this excellent resource when writing the river section of the book: Yangtse-kiang, The Great River of China, 1930. 

“While all the characters in this book are fictitious, the book is set around real historical events although as a novelist I have taken some liberty with the dates and details of those events.”

With thanks to HQ Fiction, you can now read an extract from The Shanghai Wife, (click on title) a novel of forbidden friendship, political conspiracy and incendiary passion, set in the glamour and turmoil of 1920’s Shanghai.

If you missed them, you can also read Jennifer Larmar’s review and the generous personal insights Emma Harcourt shared with Starts at 60 about her life.

The Shanghai Wife, by Emma Harcourt, is published by HQ Fiction in printed and digital editions.

Does this sound like your kind of book? What book are you reading now?