Jan Lee embarks on a journey through time to discover issues people faced in China in the 60s

Little Winter’s story begins in Beijing 1962, four years before Chairman Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, in this novel by Oxfordshire Limited Edition writer Svlvia Vetta (pictured at her recent book launch). It ends in California. Taking the form of letters to her daughter Little Winter hopes that breaking the silence of the past will enable her to see her mother in a new light.

The Cultural Revolution provides the background to the fictional heroine’s life. We learn of her mother who taught Russian studies and fought for The People’s Liberation Army, her father an engineer and her love for her childhood friend Weiwei and his sister Jia.

In 1959, Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward resulted in starvation: peasants forced from the land into state-owned co-operatives making steel; trees burnt and sparrows shot for eating grain. Capitalist Roaders, those expressing dissent, were punished; the Little Red Book, celebrating the People’s Republic of China, compulsory reading.

Meanwhile Little Winter and her friends secretly questioned the God-like Mao. Weiwei was imprisoned and tortured; Little Winter, as an artist, was accused. Years of fear, imprisonment and torture followed for anyone questioning Madam Mao and the Gang of Four. With Zhou Enlai came hope, he would ‘steady the ship of state’ but brainwashing, the betrayal of friends and family continued. Little Winter mourned the death of her mother; there was joy too: she and Weiwei married but their happiness was short- lived.

Vetta’s accomplished, harrowing and powerful book is shot through with humanity. The inclusion of real people and events gives veracity to Little Winter’s story.

Its publication is timely, with the BBC’s The Chinese New Year, Michael Wood’s The Story of China and the drama One Child while suppression continues to cast a long shadow on to China’s struggle towards democracy.

Brushstrokes in Time by Sylvia Vetta, Claret Press, £7.99