Robert van Gulik with wife Shui Shih-fang 1946
Sample of authors
Gulik, Robert van
Robert Hans van Gulik was born in Zutphen, the Netherlands, and grew up in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the former Dutch East Indies, where his father served as a medical officer in the Dutch Army. Van Gulik’s father collected Chinese porcelain and passed his interest on to his son who taught himself Mandarin. Robert van Gulik was fascinated by Chinese history and culture, and he became an authority o...
Literary figures
Arkadij Renko
Gender: Male
Police officer in the Soviet Union and Russia, at first a detective chief inspector, but later demoted after he tried to expose the shady dealings of communist bigwigs. His father was a notorious general. Arkady Renko is middle-aged, thin with a pale face and greying dark hair. His first wife, Zaya, was unfaithful and left him, Martin Cruz Smith tells us. His second wife, Irina, dies after...