What I love about this book is how it shows opportunities and decisions conspire to shape one's life, but outside forces will intrude. We are never truly in control of our own lives. Natural disasters, political forces, and people we randomly meet will change our lives for good and bad. Oswald Wynd (1913 – 1998) was a Scottish writer, born in Tokyo of parents who had left their native Perth to run a mission in Japan. The series won the 1990 BAFTA for Best Video Lighting (by Clive Thomas). It was also nominated for Best Video Cameraman (Ron Green), Best Design (Michael Young), Best Costume Design (Michael Burdle), and Best VTR Editor (Stan Pow).

Oswald Wynd - Wikipedia Oswald Wynd - Wikipedia

Technically, the use of letters and diaries to draw out the plot was very effective. Mary was able to introduce the characters quite naturally, and develop them through the story. The author is able to get inside the female character very effectively, writing consistently and honestly….He attended schools in Japan where he grew up speaking both English and Japanese. In 1932 he returned with his parents to Scotland, and studied at the University of Edinburgh and began to write novels. When World War II came he joined the Scots Guards but was then commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and sent to Malaya. At the time of the Japanese invasion, he was attached to the Indian Army on the east coast of Malaya, and his brigade covered the final withdrawal to Singapore. Cut off by the Japanese advance, he was lost alone for a week in the Johor jungle. Eventually he was captured and spent more than three years as a prisoner of war, during which time he was mentioned in dispatches for his work as an interpreter for prisoners. The book is written in Mary's voice through her journal and letters. She is trying to find herself and her place in a foreign country and in situations that she was not prepared for. My only criticism is that some times the time lapse were too large and I was left wondering about the missing years.

The Ginger Tree - Wikipedia

Wynd paints a good picture of the people in china (where Mary goes first to meet her fiancé and marry) and landscape and also Japan's landscape and people. Hampton became involved in the theatre while studying German and French at Oxford University where OUDS performed his play When Did You Last See My Mother?, about adolescent homosexuality, reflecting his own experiences at Lancing College, the boarding school he had attended. The play was performed at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and that production soon transferred to the Comedy Theatre, resulting in Hampton, in 1966, becoming the youngest writer to have a play performed in the West End in the modern era.In the late 1980s The Ginger Tree was turned into a television series by the BBC, with NHK, Japan and WGBH Boston, [4] [5] starring Samantha Bond as the protagonist. I was given The Ginger Tree, by Oswald Wynd, to read before the birth of my first child. ‘It will take your mind off things,’ said my friend. Indeed it did. Through all the dramas of a premature birth, the book stayed in my hands. The life of a young girl at the turn of the twentieth century in China and Japan provided an escape and a refuge. It still does. In times of crisis or just a bout of ’flu, I return to The Ginger Tree. It has the power that all the best books have, the power to create its own reality. I step into it and am enveloped. I have decided right now that I must not send this notebook to Mama as I promised. Ever since Port Said I have found myself wanting to write down things that she must never see. I have heard that people change east of Suez and that could be what is happening to me. The day before yesterday, when I was beginning to feel not too well, I still wanted to eat curry and I have always hated curry. It is almost frightening, that you can travel in a ship and feel yourself changing. It is not happening to everyone. Most of the passengers are too old to change. Nothing would ever change Mrs Carswell. I wish that, if I must have a chaperone, it did not have to be Mrs Carswell and we did not have to share a cabin. I left off my new corset two days ago. Now I know I can never send this to Mama. Mrs Carswell has not found out yet since we dress and undress, at least mostly, behind our bunk curtains. I just could not get into that corset up here in the heat under the roof, which is why I left it off first time. Then I smuggled it down while she was still sleeping and hid it away in my cabin trunk

The Ginger Tree – HarperCollins The Ginger Tree – HarperCollins

After Scots actress Hannah Gordon had read the play on Scottish radio, she attempted to have the book adapted by the BBC. There were three Hollywood options that failed to be realized. Retired actress Juliet Gitterman took an interest in the book and raised money for its production. After a number of false starts, the project was completed. [1] The Ginger Tree is a 1989 four-part BBC TV adaptation of the Oswald Wynd 1977 novel of the same name. It was adapted by Christopher Hampton and directed by Anthony Garner and Morimasa Matsumoto. It aired on BBC1 from 26 November to 17 December 1989, and starred Samantha Bond, Daisuke Ryu, and Adrian Rawlins.

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This is one of the few novels I have read twice, it is that good! It is published by Eland Publishing who have a wonderful ethos: “..founded in 1982 to revive great travel books which had fallen out of print. although the list has diversified into biography and fiction, it is united by a quest to define the spirit of a place. These are books for travellers, and for those who are content to travel in their own minds, Eland books ion out our understanding of other cultures, interpret the unknown and reveal different environments as well as celebrating the humour and occasional horrors of travel..” This is the kind of book that unfolds like a delectable seven-course meal. Not too rich and everything cooked to perfection. The characters are well-drawn, and sense of place is unforgettable.

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I didn't care if I had a private place or not, all I wanted was a bed, and I got that, in a ward mostly of post-operative patients not one of whom, in the whole time I was there, disgraced herself by giving the slightest sign of pain endured. Japanese women bring so many admirable qualities to the process of being alive that I can understand Aiko's frustration at not being able to ship them up into concerted action against their much less admirable males." Eland specializes in keeping the classics of travel literature in print. Eland books open out our understanding of other cultures, interpret the unknown, reveal different environments as well as celebrating the humour and occasional horrors of travel.

Finished: Having completed the whole book I now feel it was simply amazing. Why? It never felt like fiction. Never. I have a hard time believing it is not based on some person the author knew...... Mary, who she was when she travelled to marry Richard and who she became living alone in the Orient, was perfectly rendered. Wynd was born 4 July 1913 in Tokyo of parents who had left their native Perth, Scotland to run a mission in Japan. He attended schools in Japan where he grew up speaking both English and Japanese. In 1932, he returned with his parents to Scotland and studied at the University of Edinburgh. With the advent of World War II he joined the Scots Guards but due to his language ability was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and sent to Malaya. At the time of the Japanese invasion in Malaya, he was attached to the Indian Army on the east coast, and his brigade covered the final withdrawal to Singapore. Cut off by the Japanese advance, he was lost alone for a week in the Johor jungle. Eventually he was captured and spent more than three years as a prisoner of war in Hokkaidō, Japan, during which time he was mentioned in dispatches for his work as an interpreter for prisoners. He was interned at Hokkaido Main Camp, where, with three others, he was put to work on a Japanese phrase book for British prisoners of war. In June 1945 he was transferred to Bibai coal-mining camp. A very cinematic book as well. I know there was a TV mini-series adaptation in the 80's, it seems as though it would be a good candidate for an update for the large screen. This article about a historical novel of the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This is curious, for The Ginger Tree is not a great novel. Certain sections I always skip, and some of the characters in the second half fail to come to life. So why does this book grip me? Why, seventeen years after I first read it, do I still reread it regularly?