ABSTRACT
Sun’s career as an author started promisingly. In January 1897 he published his first book, and under his own name. Or, to be more exact, under the form of his name most familiar to his prospective Western readers, namely ‘Sun Yat Sen’. The book, Kidnapped in London: Being the Story of My Capture by, Detention at, and Release from the Chinese Legation, London, was published by J.W. Arrowsmith Limited of Bristol for the price of one shilling. It was widely reviewed in the London and the national press. The book was highly praised and sold well. A certain controversy has always surrounded the question of the ‘true’ author of Kidnapped in London, which I do not propose to dwell upon unduly here.1 Sun himself was perfectly straightforward on the matter in his introduction to the book:
I must beg the indulgence of all readers for my shortcomings in English composition, and confess that had it not been for the help rendered by a good friend, who transcribed my thoughts, I could never have ventured to appear as the Author of an English book.2
