Anthony Grey - 5th July 1938-11th October 2025
“It’s with deep sadness that we announce that our dear Dad Anthony Grey has died at the good old age of 87. He led his extraordinary life with great gusto, unending curiosity and boundless love. He was such a funny, vibrant and erudite man whose love for us was almost as deep as his love of words. His novels are a big part of his legacy and we hope they will continue to bring pleasure to people around the world for years to come.
With infinite love, Clarissa and Lucy Grey.”
October 2025
Anthony Grey’s novels
Anthony Grey’s novels, short stories and non-fiction books have been translated into 16 languages worldwide. He is best known internationally for his enduring historical novels, Saigon, Peking, Tokyo Bay and The Bangkok Secret.
He became a foreign correspondent with Reuters after beginning a career in journalism in Scotland and with the Eastern Daily Press in Norwich where he grew up. He covered the Cold War from East Berlin and other East European capitals before being assigned to China. He was the sole Reuters correspondent based in Peking in 1967 and the only British Journalist then resident in the Chinese capital. He first came to world attention when he was taken hostage by Mao Tse-tung’s Red Guards at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Held in solitary confinement for years, he was the first international political hostage of an era in which hostage taking has since become commonplace. After his release, his first book Hostage in Peking became a bestseller in seven countries. He went on to become an international best selling novelist.
'Anthony Grey is one of that rare species, a born storyteller.'
John Dickie, Daily Mail
Saigon
‘This superb novel could well be the War and Peace of our age. By using a technique of historic progression Anthony Grey does for the Vietnam Wars what Leo Tolstoy did for the Napoleonic wars…Brings readers closer to the social and political upheaval that overturned Vietnam than perhaps any novelist has done before.’
San Francisco Chronicle
'An epic novel of terrible importance… Like James Michener and James Clavell, Mr Grey is a master storyteller. Unlike them, however, he has something pertinent to say and does so in distinguished fashion.’
Kansas City Star
‘Long overdue epic masterpiece of twentieth-century Vietnam. The author balances political intrigues and wartime horrors with a story of human sensitivity and love.’
Advance Library Journal, New York




Peking
‘A magnificent epic novel of modern China … worth reading solely as a factual reminder of the chaos and calamity of China as a quarter of the world’s people struggled and suffered towards modernity in the stormy and cruel decades between 1920 and 1980.’
Toronto Star
‘Grey, a superbly accomplished writer, weaves a masterly tale of triumph and tragedy … marvellous detail, erudite, imaginative and instructive sequel to his previous best-selling novel Saigon.'
Western Australian
‘A moving, authentic, tautly written saga of forty years of blood, sweat and tears … conveys brilliantly the workings of the Chinese Communist system in its dealings with foreigners and dissidents.’
Los Angeles Times


Tokyo Bay
'A thrilling novel of the West’s first journeys to Japan from “a master storyteller” and the acclaimed author of Saigon and Peking.'
The Kansas City Star
'The English writer has hit upon a winning formula for historical novels that rest on solid research and are painstakingly balanced.
Japan Times
Other books by Anthony Grey
Hostage in Peking, The Bangkok Secret, The German Stratagem, The Bulgarian Exclusive, The Chinese Assassin, The Naked Angels, A Man Alone, The Prime Minister Was a Spy, The Hostage Handbook: The Secret Diary of a Two-Year Ordeal in China
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