The year is 1900 and China is once again plunged into barbaric
chaos. The Boxers, a cult of young peasants who blame the foreign
barbarians living in their country Â- particularly the missionaries
Â- for the nation's ills, are rampaging through the country, killing
any foreigners. China's Dowager Empress Â- Â The Dragon Lady' Â-
secretly encourages them.
Into this maelstrom land former captain and army scout Simon
Fonthill, his wife Alice and  352' Jenkins, Fonthill's former
batman and trusted comrade, to visit Alice's uncle, a country
missionary. Threatened by the Boxers, the three escort the
missionary and his family to the safety of Peking.
En route, the party is attacked by the red-bannered Boxers and the
missionary is killed. The survivors reach Peking only to find that
the capital is no sanctuary. The Legations of the foreign ministers
within the city is surrounded and the Siege of Peking begins.
Fonthill, Jenkins and Chang, the missionary's adopted son, volunteer
to slip through the enemy lines to bring help. It proves to be
Fonthill's most dangerous mission . . .
According
to author John Wilcox, an inability to do sums and a nascent talent to
string words together steered him towards journalism - that and the
desire to wear a trench coat, belted with a knot, just like Bogart.
After a number of years working as a journalist, he was lured into
industry. In the mid-nineties he sold his company in order to devote
himself to his first love, writing. His Simon Fonthill novels have
been published to high acclaim and he has also published two works of
non-fiction.Â
www.
johnwilcoxauthor. co. uk
