Audrey Donnithorne was born in Sichuan province China of British missionary parents and is an economist and writer who has held academic posts at University College London and at the Australian National University, working mainly on the economy of China. In her long life she has been a sharp-eyed observer of a changing Asia and Western world: of China in the era of the war lords, the Guomindang and the war against Japan, Mao and the post-Maoist resurgence;...