B. L. (Bertram Lenox) Putnam Weale

Born Bertram Lenox Simpson in 1877, he wrote under the name B. L. Putnam Weale and became known as a British author and journalist focused on China. He was educated at Brighton College, came from a family connected to the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and also worked in China himself.

He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion and the siege of the legations, experiences that helped shape his later writing. He went on to work in several journalistic roles, including as the Daily Telegraph's correspondent in Beijing from 1911 to 1914, and he became especially noted for books such as Indiscreet Letters from Peking, The Re-Shaping of the Far East, and The Fight for the Republic in China.

His writing is remembered for bringing the politics and tensions of modern China to English-language readers with urgency and detail. He died in 1930.