Olga was born in Siberia, in 1900. Born into a well-off merchant's family trading with Mongolia and China, life was very pleasant. She remembers all in her town welcoming news - when it eventually arrived - of the 1905 Revolution. War and 1917 changed everything. Caught up in the intricacies of the Civil War she was lucky to escape to Tientsin just in time. She never saw any of her family again. In China she marries an Englishman working for a tobacco factory and as he is promoted so life becomes easier again - until the Japanese invasion of China. Lucky to escape Shanghai in 1937 she makes a new life in Canada with her daughter, while her husband survives internment in a Japanese camp. Returning to China after WW2 they start again, only to be sent home just before 1949. This is the kind of history that appeals very much to me - the history behind the headlines. I'd always thought of Siberia as a prison camp, but here we have affluence, fine wines from France, financed by the fur, gold and tea trades. We have a story of luck, yes, but also of great fortitude; starting all over again not once but twice or thrice.A rivetting read that shines a new light on some of the major events of the C20th.