Step into the otherworldly splendour of the Forbidden City, its red walls and golden rooftops shimmering at the heart of Peking…

In the early 1920s, China’s boy ruler Puyi and his child bride Wanrong were sequestered within the ancient citadel: a city-within-a-city, a haven prohibited to all except the imperial family and its scheming courtiers, fawning servants and corrupt eunuchs. An emperor without an empire, Puyi did not know from one day to the next whether he would experience restoration or assassination. Two years later, the couple was expelled into eternal exile, bringing an end to the centuries-old Manchu Dynasty.

This extraordinary story has captivated us for generations – but we have never before seen the full picture. Now, Paul French draws upon previously unpublished sources, including memoirs, diaries and letters, to dispel the myth of a loveless marriage between an impotent emperor and a neglected empress. He takes us deep inside the hidden world of Puyi and Wanrong, and the cast of colourful characters that surrounded them, from tutors Reginald Johnston and Isabel Ingram to Wenxiu, the oft-forgotten chief consort to the emperor kept in the shadows of the Forbidden City.

What emerges is a sweeping tale of tradition and revolution, of duty and intrigue – and a young married couple facing a hostile world. It is a mesmerising portrait of a dying regime: the final days of the Forbidden City as they have never been seen before.