As ever, I owe a debt to the staff of the London Library for helping with my research; to my agent, Jane Conway-Gordon, for her constant support; and to my wife, Betty, devoted proofreader, research assistant and lifelong mate.
The Siege of Peking provoked scores of books, not all of them consistent in their recording of events, nor in their Western spelling of Chinese names. I read many but, in the end, relied heavily on The Siege at Peking, by Peter Fleming, published by Rupert Hart-Davis (London 1959); The Siege of the Peking Legations, a Diary, by Lancelot Giles; and Chinese Anti-Foreignism and the Boxer Uprising by L.R. Marchant, both published by the University of Western Australia Press.