Born in Beijing in 1958, Xinran was a journalist and radio presenter in China. In 1997 she moved to London, where she wrote her bestselling book The Good Women of China. Since then she has written a regular column for the Guardian, appeared frequently on radio and TV, and published Sky Burial, What the Chinese Don’t Eat, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother, the novel Miss Chopsticks and a ground-breaking work of oral history, China Witness. Her charity, The Mothers’ Bridge of Love, was founded to help disadvantaged Chinese children and to build a bridge of understanding between the West and China.