News
Tour dates, public lectures and other news
A Date for your Diary: British Library – Virtual Private View on 29th March 2022
Finding out all about the wonderful world of Japanese kimono pattern books with curator Hamish Todd at the British Library.
A Date for your Diary: Ashmolean Museum Oxford – Online Talk on 9th December 2021
Edo Castle: The Glittering World of the Shogun’s Courtality
A Date for your Diary: JSNW – Online Talk on 17th September 2021
The Meiji Restoration and the part the British played in making sure it went ahead.
A Date for your Diary: Ashmolean Museum Oxford – Online Talk on 9th September 2021
The Decadent World of the Yoshiwara: Dream and Reality
Watch Lesley in conversation with Pico Iyer
Born in England and based in western Japan for 33 years, Pico Iyer talks about the changes, the changelessness and the paradoxes of his adopted home, as reflected in his recent works Autumn Light and A Beginner’s Guide to Japan at this British Library digital event on 6 May, 2021. […]
A Date for your Diary: British Library online on 6 May 2021
Author and journalist Pico Iyer in conversation with Lesley Downer
Pico Iyer talks about the changes, the changelessness and the paradoxes of his adopted home, as reflected in his recent works […]
Age of Samurai on Netflix
Thrilled to be involved in this brilliant Netflix series on Japan’s Age of Samurai. … I was lucky enough to be asked to tell the women’s side of the story. […]
Summer 2020 Update
Thrilled to be contributing to Inaka, an anthology of writing on rural Japan. In my piece have revisited my very first book, On the Narrow Road, and written about what became of the people I met when I made that journey. …. Read more