Set against the backdrop of Europe with World War II imminent, Eastern Starlight, a British Girl's Memoir as the Wartime Wife of a U.S. Diplomat, is the third book of a trilogy by Jean Elder, the first two of which are about her China years. We join Jean and her husband, US Vice Consul Reginald Mitchell, as the newlywed couple depart Shanghai for their first post together, Warsaw, Poland, an armed camp surrounded by enemy superpowers and a haven for spies. Jean draws us into the fascinating but fiercely demanding Foreign Service world of international relations face-to-face diplomacy in a lifestyle that few of her peers would ever know at age 23. She shares with us her experiences engaging with Ambassadors and Ministers and their wives and Papal Emissaries at grand diplomatic soirees and equally important, as a diplomatic hostess having to plan and manage teas and tiffins and dinner parties at home. Protocol is a carryover from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and rules about formal attire, such as all but swords and medals (ABSAM) and stringent social etiquette, are followed to the letter. Posted to Dublin, Irish Free State, Jean, becomes friends with Sinead O'Flanagan, wife of IFS President Eamon de Valera, who opposes Britain and intends to keep Ireland neutral in any future war with Nazi Germany. Returning "home side", Reg is assigned the newly created position of State Department Press Spokesman and White House Press Liaison. Through Jean's eyes, we have a colorful close-up view of pre-war Washington, a city of lovely parks, Christmas lights along bustling downtown sidewalks, Beaux Arts theaters, and large department stores. Assigned to our Legation in Port-au-Prince following Pearl Harbor, the respect accorded her by Haiti's mercurial President, Elie Lescot, is invaluable in gaining access to medical attention when Malaria strikes her family. Based on her riveting wartime diary, Jean brings to life for the first time her incredible journey as a mother with two young sons aboard a Liberty ship in an armed convoy having to survive multiple German air attacks at night in the Mediterranean to join her husband at the US Consulate, Port Sa'id, Egypt in 1944. Eastern Starlight is about a remarkable woman of her era, not only because of the life she led, but the kind of person she was-----her moral character and compassion, loyalty to family and friends, willingness to put others above herself, acceptance of people of all walks of life, and courage when in peril. This is a compelling story that will resonate with readers of all ages.

Set against the backdrop of Japan's seizure of China's entire northeast, Eastern Starlight, a British Girl's Memoir of China in the 1930s is the second of a trilogy by Jean Elder, born in Hwangkutun village near Mukden, Fengtien Province, Manchuria, in 1912, year of the fall of the last Manchu Dynasty. The story continues as Jean and her mother survive the fearsome night assault on Mukden by the Imperial Japanese Army in September 1931, but are forced by the invaders to leave Manchuria. Jean accepts her brother Jim's offer to settle in Peking, intellectual crossroads and cultural oasis of the Orient, safe from China's expanding civil war and continuing clashes with the Japanese in Jehol. We meet her charismatic friends in L'Hotel de Pekin--Italian Count Galeazzo Ciano and his wife, Edda, daughter of Mussolini; Julius Barr, famed American aviator; the playwright George Bernard Shaw; William Henry Donald, referred to by historians as Donald of China; and the acclaimed March of Time photographer "Newsreel" Wong--and become a part of her intriguing social life with them. Chang Hsiao Liang (the Young Marshal), close to Jean and the Elder family, must take a self-imposed year-long exile from China to save face, after which he will be forgiven for the loss of Manchuria. Jim departs with the Marshal for Europe, and during her own leave of absence, Jean shares with us her straight-from-the-heart impressions of America during the Depression and her fascinating life at sea aboard the great liners of the era including Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic. She must defy cannon-firing brigands and snipers along the Yangtze River in order to reunite with Jim in Hupei Province, where the Marshal has reestablished command of his troops. Jean provides an unvarnished insight into the "anything goes" world of China in the 1930s including her harrowing escape in the dark from a pirate vessel while aboard a passenger steamer in the Yellow Sea. In Hankow, she is a frequent guest of the US Navy aboard USS Luzon (PR-7) and USS Tutuila (PR-4) during the swashbuckling days of inshore gunboat diplomacy in scenes much like those portrayed in the movie, Sand Pebbles. After a whirlwind courtship, she marries the love of her life, US Vice Consul Reginald Mitchell. This is the story of a British girl who grew up in China in the hands of an Amah with the good fortune of gaining dual perspectives of life, Chinese and Western, forever loyal to family and friends, compassionate toward others, true to her values, and humble as a person.