My Battle of Hastings: Chronicle of a Year by the Sea

by Xiaolu Guo

'One of the most valuable writers in the world' Deborah Levy

Embodiment, assimilation, integration – these are big words, but they seem to name a stage or a state I ought to be able to achieve in my brief life.

In winter 2021, Xiaolu Guo moved into a tiny dilapidated flat on the Hastings seafront, a room of her own where she could spend time writing away from her domestic duties as a mother and wife in London. As Russia invaded Ukraine, she immersed herself in the English landscape and its past, especially the violence between Normans and Saxons.

My Battle of Hastings is a chronicle of Xiaolu’s life in Hastings and a portrait of a dislocated artist seeking to connect with her local environment in the hope of finding a deeper connection to her adoptive nation. Filled with profound, beautiful and wry reflections on war, history, migration and belonging, Xiaolu’s journey into the past completes the triptych of memoirs that began with Once Upon a Time in the East, charting her childhood in China, then continued with A Life of My Own in search of a freedom beyond her home.

My Battle of Hastings is above all an exploration of how an immigrant, an outsider and a woman can embrace local and national history.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, British Literature, China, 21st Century, Travel

180 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2024

About the author

Xiaolu Guo (Simplified Chinese: 郭小櫓 pinyin:guō xiǎo lǔ, born 1973) is a Chinese novelist and filmmaker. She utilizes various media, including film and writing, to tell stories of alienation, introspection and tragedy, and to explore China's past, present and future in an increasingly connected world.

Her novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers was nominated for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award (UK) winner for Creative Excellence.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a really interesting read, more a collection of short stories/reflections than one continuous narrative. As a Hastings almost-local, I enjoyed the author's references to different parts of the town. I loved how she referenced elements of Anglo-Saxon history (especially, of course, the Battle of Hastings) and connected them to present-day Hastings and her own experiences moving to the town as a Chinese immigrant.

[Lien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Xiaolu Guo’s writing and I love these types of memoires.

[Freddie Tuson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always nice to read someone writing about a place you know well

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a palate cleanser after Intermezzo.

[Ruihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved reading this, not just because it's partly about English history but from the perspective of someone who grew up in China. In the book she reflected on all manner of things - history, culture, politics, our current struggles. And the writing is beautiful too!

[Ronan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It is true, the news officially announces that the Queen is dead. I listen while eating a slice of mature Cheddar. The cheese is past its sell-by date and was reduced in Marks & Spencer. It is not disimilar from the royal family, I think, though the difference is that one has persisted way, way beyond its expiry date, and is still very expensive."

As someone who grew up in several different countries, and still hopes to see more, I loved reading Xiaolu's experience of a new place and culture. How to delve into that miserably British small town life.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the book that brought me back at reading.

I bought this at London Review of Books just the day following a my first trip to Hastings.
I fell in love with the writing of Xiaolu Guo, which is so poetic. I loved the insight on her personal life and family history, the little bits of the everyday life in a coastal British town and, in the middle of this, the actual battle of Hastings, the one that happened in 1066.

Loved her and her family walking on the beach, the blue tits swimming in the cold, the weak windows of her flat and the brexiter handyman, the Norman William, and the Anglo-Saxon Harold.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels more like a series of vignettes than a coherent story but they're all very short (usually a page or two) and easy to read so it's quite pleasant going.

There were a few glaring factual errors, of the sort that makes you question everything else you read, that really should've been picked up by a copy editor.
It was also sprinkled with a bit of a casual sexism, which wasn't really my bag, but didn't completely detract from the book.

[Bronwen Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lived in Hastings for fifteen years and I still live nearby. I have also read most of Guo's previous books. I liked the way she has examined Hastings through its history in a way that hasn't been done before. As a curious outsider Guo has managed to bring 1066 to life. She explores both history and the present in this enjoyable book.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent a long weekend in Hastings over Easter, and since I like reading local writers and stories when I travel, this book became my Easter read. I really enjoyed learning about Hastings through the authors perspective and explore it from a more historical point of view.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little depressing (was that the point?) but good to learn what a key moment in British history and a fading seaside resort look like through the eyes of a Chinese immigrant to England. Xiaolu Guo's writing is clear and correct, and leaves me with the feeling that I ought to do better.

[Tonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, particularly the way that personal memories are intertwined with history and current events. As an immigrant and now a (sort of) Hastings local, I am fascinated by the author’s reflections on this cold and sometimes unwelcoming place that I now call home.

[Ricardo Motti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very meditative, like living in Hastings. Made me miss the peacefulness, but not the wind.

[Kat Dance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very meditative and at times meandering. Relaxing and enjoyable reading this whilst also contemplating my own childhood in Hastings.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engrossing contemplation on war and history also capturing a snapshot of the author's life in Hastings. At under 200 pages, it's a brief read but very compelling.

[Billbium Billbo · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

[Patrick Sherriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stuff. My proper review is here: https://patricksherriff.com/2026/01/0...

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why? Why does this book even exist?

[Sam Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hastings was my home for the summer holidays every year during school holidays (many moons ago) and is a place I still visit every year. It never changes and you know what you are getting. The old town has all of your seaside town staples including arcades, a funfair, minigolf and a pub in eyesight regardless of where you stand. Take the underpass (adorned with art of the Bayeux tapestry which tends to shelter a homeless person) and you enter the new town which is your standard town centre and could not feel more different from the old town.

Guo's perspective as a foreign lady staying in Hastings during a year of international turmoil is thought provoking and relatable. Her views on British politics, immigration, Ukraine and community will be relatable to the majority of people that read this book and the comfort of relatability I found with her thoughts made the this book a rewarding read.

Hastings feels like a place that is stuck in a time loop whilst remaining endearing enough to want to return to whilst also being surrounded by the mystique of one of the worlds most famous battles and Guo manages to capture that incredibly well.

3.5/5

[David Lai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melancholy vignettes of a Chinese writer's quest to get a grounding in the British psyche by studying the Battle of Hastings, after she has settled in the town that gave the battle its name. There are amusing references to the current state of the nation, and inadvertently amusing reflections on mediaeval English peasants eating potatoes. The monochrome photos taken by the author are even more melancholy than the text.