'After I had run away from school, no one knew what to do with me...'

Born in Shanghai in 1915, son of a wealthy rubber merchant, Denton Welch was dispatched to an English boarding school after his mother's death. There he suffered, and soon absconded, forcing his father to bring him back to Shanghai where further travels and adventures ensued. Maiden Voyage (1943) is Welch's semi-novelistic, beautifully observed account of these formative experiences.

'Denton Welch's subject matter had a richness and a colour that links him with very unlike writers, such as Dylan Thomas, Edith Sitwell and Christopher Fry, all of whom were standing out against the drabness of their times.' Alan Bennett

'Such a marvelous writer.' William S Burroughs