Alexandra Pearson came to China in 1982 as the daughter of a diplomat in the British Embassy. Since graduation Alex has started several cultural and business enterprises, and is the founder and one of the owners of The Bookworm, China, an English language library/restaurant cum cultural center that hosts authors from all over the world. She resides in Beijing.

Lucy Cavender went to Beijing as a student in the mid-1980s and then moved there with her family in 1997 and stayed there for ten years. Her photographic subjects include many well-known writers, artists and, of course, Beijingers. She is based in London.

Beijing Portrait of a City brings China's capital to life. The book is the shared work of some of the city's finest writers who lead us through 'hutong' alleys, antique markets, artists' communities, gay bars, parks and the nostalgic streets of memory. They beguile with poems, amuse with camel anecdotes and thrill with two murder stories - one a genuine antique, the other a fictional contemporary. They take us back to the often-ignored Mongolian roots of the city and project forward to ask whether spectacular modern architecture will suffice to return Beijing to what it sees as its ancient place at the center of the world. Compiled by Alexandra Pearson and Lucy Cavender, the book interweaves its written work with a collection of wry and telling photographs of different aspects of the city, creating a compelling portrait of Beijing. The contributors, all published authors and experts in their field, have spent many years living in Beijing and know it from the inside. Individual contributors combine to leave a highly original and unforgettable impression of one of the world's oldest and most fascinating cities.