Pleasant but not very exciting story of a party of foreigners captured by bandits outside Peking. To me, interesting psychologically as a sensible mature married woman politely declines the chance for an affaire. Not something we see often. ( )

Peking Picnic starts off slow, but once everyone heads for the hills for the titular picnic, fascinating things begin to happen. The novel highlights the lifestyle of the proper side of the society, whose seedier parts produced the murder documented in Midnight in Peking, which I read in May. As many outsider characters comment on throughout the novel, it doesn't always seem like the best way to live.

But live it is what Laura Leroy, the wife of an embassy official, does. That is when she's not dreaming of her children and friends back home in England. Forever trapped between two worlds, Laura nevertheless makes herself a key member of Peking society. Two of her nieces are visiting from the Home Counties, and Laura is making sure they see all the sights Peking has to offer. So when she's invited on a picnic to a temple outside of town, she insists they be brought along. But China in the late 20s and early 30s is not a safe or stable place to be, and it soon seems that leaving town may have been a great mistake indeed.

Ann Bridge, who in real life was the wife of a British diplomat who served in China, always has beautify lyric prose and this book is no exception. Despite the foreign setting, Peking Picnic is very much a novel of ideas and ideals, about love and sacrifice and the proper way of living. Laura is definitely one who appreciates the bitter with the sweet, and in the course of the novel, one begins to see that that is a wise path to follow.

My favorite character was definitely Hubbard, Laura's indefatigable maid, who knows more about what's going on in China than any intelligence service and when faced with a hostage situation crochets instead of panicking.

I think Illyrian Spring] is still my favorite Ann Bridge novel, but Peking Picnic is now firmly ensconced as #2. Recommended for anyone with an interest in 1920s/30s China, vintage novels, female authors, and stories with strong, thoughtful women. ( )

I have recently enthused about my love of Virago books, especially when they come in an original shade of dark green – such is the collector’s obsession. Therefore it seemed fitting that the first book I read after the month of re-reading –when I could select from my teetering TBR – should be a Virago. This particular book was sent to me by Dee from the Libraything Virago group, as part of my lovely secret Santa Parcel. I have been so looking forward to reading it, and I haven’t at all been disappointed. Peking Picnic is a wonderful novel. Thank you Dee.
I have been reading this novel rather slowly – certainly the first half of it I did – due to having slept rather badly a couple of times last week – very out of character – which left me very tired. I found myself having to read whole paragraphs and pages over and over – as my poor tired brain found working out who was who a bit tricky at first. Strangely however I was glad that I had to read it slowly because the writing is so beautiful, just as with Illyrian Spring which I read last year – there is a wonderful sense of place which Ann Bridge has created.
“sitting back in her chair under an oleander, for a moment alone, what she saw with great clearness was a green field bordered with youthful Scots pines, on which a small white figures ran about with happy cries. She heard the sound of wood on leather and leather on wood, and treble voices crying “how’s that?” and hurrahing eagerly if thinly.”
As conflict threatens between local warlords, Laura Leroy - an ambassadorial wife at the very heart of the British Legation at Peking, quietly misses her children and dreams of Oxford. Mrs Leroy is very much admired and respected in this diplomatic community. A host of interesting and diverse characters surround Laura Leroy as the novel opens; including Major La Touche – called Touchy by everyone, Laura’s friend Nina Nevile, Nina’s niece Little Annette, and Laura’s own nieces Lilah and Judith, Miss Hande an American novelist and various diplomatic staff such as Derek Fitzmaurice. Into this group comes Professor Vinstead a Cambridge academic of psychology, for who the idea of a Peking Picnic as a kind of welcome is conceived. This picnic is not the Sunday afternoon outing that we may think of when we see the word, but more of a camping expedition taking a couple of days, to see the great temple of Chieh T’ai Ssu .
As the trip gets underway friendships and romances blossom, Laura is called upon to offer advice and quiet good sense to the fledgling lovers, while, surprisingly finding herself not entirely unmoved by the lonely Professor. Things take an unexpected and dramatic turn however when the party are taken hostage by a group of dishevelled bandits.
This is exactly the kind of novel I love. A quiet intelligent novel, peopled with memorable and interesting characters. I have already said that the writing is beautiful – and it is – and good writing cannot be beaten. However there were even some moments which are also very funny. When Hubbard – Laura’s odd little maid suddenly appears in the middle of the captors – declaring she hadn’t been captured but had walked in –bearing dozens of cheap cigarettes for Laura and her friends – it is a delight.
Throughout the novel Ann Bridge uses repeated lines to poetry quoted and thought about by Laura and Vinstead particularly– such as: “come you not, a careless stranger, Him with reckless words to waken” which somehow bring a touching poignancy to the scene described.
This wonderful novel really will live in my mind for a while. ( )

Peking Picnic is one of Virago’s lesser-known titles, by one of their lesser-known authors (and sadly, never reprinted; Ann Bridge’s novels are incredibly hard to find). Ann Bridge was the pseudonym of Mary Dolling Sanders. She later married a Foreign Office official, whose work took their family to China. The brief time they spent in China informed the plot of Ann Bridge’s first novel.

Peking Picnic is the story of Laura Leroy, wife to a British attaché in Peking. She is an active participant in Peking life, but misses her children, who are back in England at school. One day, she and a few acquaintances take a trip to a nearby temple. Laura plays fairy godmother, of sorts, to several of the young lovers on the trip, but finds herself intrigued by another member of the party.

Ann Bridge’s writing is lyrically poetic. Laura Leroy is a difficult character to get to know because she isn’t easily classifiable. She’s an idealist, but a realist at the same time. I loved the author’s descriptions of China, especially the difference between the Westerners and Chinese.

I can’t help but compare this novel with Emily Hahn’s memoir of China, which is as different as different can be; Peking Picnic was written when WWII was still a ways away, and there’s an idyllic quality to this novel that makes it quite beautiful to read. Emily Hahn’s memoir focuses on facts; Peking Picnic focuses on ideas. The plot isn’t the strongest point of the book, however; there’s a scene with bandits that I didn’t find so believable. But in all, I enjoyed this novel. ( )