Wild Swans

Jung Chang was born in Sichuan Province, China, in 1952.During the Cultural Revolution she worked as a peasant, a ‘barefoot doctor’, a steelworker and an electrician. She came to Britain in 1978, and in 1982 became the first person from the People’s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She lives in London. In addition to Wild Swans, Jung Chang has written three critically acclaimed biographies: Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon Halliday); Empress Dowage Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, 2013); and Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China (2019).

'An inspiring tale of women who survived every kind of hardship, deprivation and political upheaval with their humanity intact' Hillary Clinton, O, The Oprah Magazine 'A mesmerizing memoir' TIME Magazine ‘It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this book' Mary Wesley ‘Everything about “Wild Swans” is extraordinary. It arouses all the emotions, such as pity and terror, that great tragedy is supposed to evoke, and also a complex mixture of admiration, despair and delight at seeing a luminous intelligence directed at the heart of darkness' Minette Marrin, Sunday Telegraph ‘Immensely moving and unsettling; an unforgettable portrait of the brain-death of a nation' J. G. Ballard, Sunday Times ‘“Wild Swans” made me feel like a five-year-old. This is a family memoir that has the breadth of the most enduring social history' Martin Amis, Independent on Sunday ‘There has never been a book like this' Edward Behr, Los Angeles Times