A multi-stranded historical epic set in China in 1937, when Wuhan stood alone against a whirlwind of war and violence. Everyone's heard of Wuhan in connection with Covid-19. But 80 years ago it was equally famous as the first place on earth to decisively defeat fascism. In 1937 Japan invaded China, slaughtering 20 million Chinese mainly civilians. As vast swathes of the country fell to the invaders, Wuhan was appointed wartime capital and symbol of Chinese resistance. China, a medieval society, began a desperately needed reorganisation transforming itself militarily, educationally, medically and culturally. Their heroic efforts in Wuhan halted the Japanese. Weaving together a multitude of narratives, Wuhan is a historical fiction epic that pulls no punches: the heart-in-mouth story of a peasant family forced onto a thousand-mile refugee death-march; the story of Lao She China's greatest writer leaving his family in a war-zone to assist with the propaganda effort in Wuhan; the hellish battlefields of the Sino-Japanese war; the approaching global war seen through a host of colourful characters from Chiang Kai-Shek, China's nationalist leader, to Peter Fleming, British journalist based in Wuhan and a prototype for his younger brother Ian Fleming's James Bond. 2021 Head of Zeus