Author Jean Elder’s New Book, "Eastern Starlight ~ A British Girl’s Memoir of China in the 1930s: Volume 2," Written with Reg Mitchell, is the Second in the Trilogy

N. Bethesda, MD, September 14, 2023 --(PR.com)-- Jean Elder, along with Reg Mitchell, has completed her new book, “Eastern Starlight ~ A British Girl’s Memoir of China in the 1930s: Volume 2”: a fascinating work that shares the next chapter of Jean’s story.

Author Jean Elder was born in 1912 in Hwangkutun village near Mukden, Manchuria, China’s vast northeast region ruled by the warlord Chang Tso-lin. Raised by a Chinese Amah, educated by British tutors, and surrounded by close Chinese friends, she had the benefit of being exposed from birth to both Eastern and Western cultures and growing up with dual perspectives.

As Manager of the Peking-Mukden Railroad in Manchuria, her father, also an advisor to Chang Tso-lin, ensured that at an early age, Jean was brought into the vibrant social life that her parents were privileged to be a part of with the Chang family in their heavily guarded estate seen by no other foreign eyes and with those of the Chinese, Japanese, and transnational community.

Jean lived through encounters with Mongolian bandits known for their barbarism and inhumanity, a pirate vessel night attack off the China coast, incidents when her steamer was under fire from the banks of the Yangtze, and terrifying Pacific typhoons. In 1931, she survived “The Mukden Incident,” precursor to World War II in the Pacific when the Japanese opened fire with rail guns and artillery and
invaded the city with their Kwantung Army infantry.

In Wuhan, she met the love of her life, U.S. Vice Consul Reginald Mitchell, and became swept up in a whirlwind life as the wife of a diplomat and all that it demanded. Their first post as a couple, in Warsaw, Poland, during the rise of neighboring Nazi Germany and the German invasion of the Rhineland couldn’t have been of more critical importance to the Roosevelt administration that year of 1936.

While aboard a Liberty ship in secret in 1944 on her way from the United States to Port Sa’id, Egypt, to join her husband, the convoy, codenamed UGS-48, survived multiple night attacks by German bombers in perilous antiair combat in the Mediterranean Sea. At the war’s end, she and Reginald returned to the States to establish their home in Washington, DC, and in the seven years to follow, they completed three other Foreign Service assignments abroad with their sons, Reg and Bruce. After becoming a widow during her retirement years, she led a quiet life in a southern city with her second husband, Judge Alex Marks. Jean died peacefully at the age of ninety-one with her family by her side.

Co-author Reg Mitchell was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and grew up in a Foreign Service family abroad. Like other children of diplomats, he was required to continuously transition into different academic systems in different cultures involving different languages. The multinational schools he attended growing up such as the American School in Paris, British Boys School in Port Sa’id, and École Militaire in Port-au-Prince provided invaluable learning experiences in the classroom and more importantly in life. He has traveled to China and has long been a student of the warlord era and of his family’s experiences during those years. After graduating from the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Navy OCS, Newport, Rhode Island, he served at sea as a naval officer on various combatants during the late 1960s. He is a retired licensed architect with many years of professional practice in Washington, DC, and is also a retired U.S. Naval Reserve Captain. He lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Published by Covenant Books of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Jean Elder’s new book, written with Reg Mitchell, provides an unvarnished insight into the “anything goes” world of China in the 1930s including her harrowing escape in the dark from a pirate vessel while aboard a passenger steamer in the Yellow Sea.

Readers can purchase “Eastern Starlight ~ A British Girl’s Memoir of China in the 1930s: Volume 2” at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Covenant Books is an international Christian-owned and operated publishing house based in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Covenant Books specializes in all genres of work that appeal to both the Christian and secular markets. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Covenant Books at 843-507-8373.