113: Lesley Downer and Lucinda Hawksley - The Goldster Magazine SHow Podcast

“A terrific overview of Japan’s long and rich history that covers an astonishing amount of ground. A gem of a book that is as engaging as it is readable.” Peter Frankopan


This week on the Goldster Magazine Show, Lucinda Hawksley will be joined by author Lesley Downer who will take us on a captivating journey into the heart of one of Asia’s most enigmatic countries, via her latest book, The Shortest History of Japan. 

Zen, haiku, martial arts, sushi, anime, manga, film, video games ... Japanese culture has long enriched our Western way of life. Yet from a Western perspective, Japan remains a remote island country that has long had a complicated relationship with the outside world. Lesley’s previous books, including The Shogun’s Queen, The Courtesan and the Samurai, and Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World, offered unique insights into a little-understood world, and with this latest title, Lesley delves even deeper into Japan’s fascinating past.

Even at the nearest point, Japan – an archipelago strung like a necklace around the Asian mainland – is considerably farther from Asia than Britain is from mainland Europe. The sea provides an effective barrier against invasion and has enabled the culture to develop in unique and distinctive ways. During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shoguns successfully closed the country to the West. After Japan opened up to the world again, it swung in the opposite direction, adopting Western culture wholesale. Both these strategies enabled it to avoid colonization, one of the very few non-Western countries to do so, and to retain its traditions and way of life.