Lesley Downer launched her new book, The Shortest History of Japan (Old Street), at Daunt Books in Marylebone. The book presents 16,500 years of history in fewer than 250 pages, and is, in the words of her publisher Ben Yarde-Buller, ‘a model of clarity and expertise’.
With her are old friends Robert Rigby (the Lord Mayor of Westminster – he worked at Japan Airlines for 20 years) and his wife Emiko.