Mao: A Life - Hardcover

Philip Short's fascinating biography holds the key to a real understanding of Mao's motivations. Mao was a colossal figure, great within his century, and in Chinese terms launching a new cycle of history. Tracing his life from a peasant upbringing, to his struggle for power, through to his role beyond the grave, the power struggle that followed his death in 1976 and his posthumous role as a secular deity, Mao sheds new light on the dimensions and colour of his life, and the immensity of his influence on world history.

Philip Short was for thirty years a foreign correspondent for the BBC, based in Washington, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing. He lived and worked in China in the 1970s and early 1980s, and has returned regularly to the country ever since.