Letters from Hankow
The Chinese Revolution of 1911
The Eye Witness Account of Laura Beckingsale

Edited and Compiled by Tony Beckingsale
ISBN 0-18-42890158
£12.95

When Laura Beckingsale went to China in 1911 as a teacher at a missionary school, she found herself at the heart of the Chinese revolution, when the imperial dynasty was overthrown and the new republic established.
This fascinating collection of her letters and photographs provide a unique insight into the dramatic sequence of these world-shattering events.
Laura was born in London at the end of the 19th Century. As a lower-middle-class young lady her life prospects were very limited – a routine job and hopefully marriage and family. Being of an adventurous nature she decided to train as a schoolteacher in the missionary movement and was sent to China, where she soon realised that her taste for adventure had brought her more than she had bargained for.
Laura Beckingsale is a fascinating example of the kind of Englishwoman of the time who was resourceful, strong and courageous and was not prepared to settle for what life was likely to prescribe for her. In later life she trained in psychoanlaysis and became one of the first Jungian practitioners in Britain.
She was honoured by the government of the Republic of China for her efforts on behalf of the Chinese people.

Tony Beckingsale, who has edited and compiled this fascinating and unique account this world-changing event, is a distant relation of Laura and knew her for the last five years of her life when she was elderly and living alone in reduced circumstances at her home in High Wycombe. She had been ‘discovered’ by his father, in the course of researching his family tree. He has complied this account of her time in China from an archive that he inherited from her, of original letters, photographs and extensive interviews that she gave in later life.

Hardback with dust jacket. 234 x 156mm. 94pp, including 24pp colour images.

Click here for extracts from Letters from Hankow