Fact-based novel, first published in 1920. According to Wikipedia: "Bertram Lenox Simpson (1877-1930) was a British author who wrote about China under the pen name "B. L. Putnam Weale". Lenox-Simpson was the son of Clare Lenox-Simpson, who had been in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service since 1861; he had a brother, Evelyn, a mining engineer who worked in China, and a sister, Esme. His education was at Brighton College, after which he too joined the Service.[2] He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion and during the siege of the legations... His work Indiscreet Letters from Peking is widely cited as an eyewitness account of the events during the siege of the Legations in 1900, but several scholars have cast doubt on its reliability.”