Doris Macauley, international correspondent and author of “Bread and Rice,” which won the Pearl Buck “East West” award, died at her Margate, Fla., home Sunday, on her 95th birthday.
Mrs. Macauley’s work took her to China as a war correspondent covering the Sino-Japanese War for the South China Morning Post. After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she became a radio commentator broadcasting from Manila station KZRM.
Mrs. Macauley spent 11 months hiding with a family in the Philippine countryside during the Japanese occupation. She was eventually put into an internment camp until liberated by the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division, under Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Her second book, “What Time Is It in China?,” a suspense novel, was based on her experiences as a correspondent in Hankow, China, and is now being made into a film by Silk and Steel productions of London.
Three more books by Mrs. Macauley also are being published: “The Lady With the Binoculars,” set in Spain; “Happy Hour” about her experiences as a teacher in postwar Europe and “The Chinese Jewess,” based on the oldest Jewish colony in China.
Mrs. Macauley was married for more than 50 years to Thurston Macauley, a former New York Times correspondent based in London. She has one son, Theodore, and two grandchildren, Marie and Geraldine Macauley, all of whom live in France.
Mrs. Macauley was recently interviewed from Kuala Lumpur by well-known Malaysian writer Datin Anna Lim (former Miss Malaysia) for her views on parenting. She also appears prominently in Mrs. Lim’s book, “Children: the Future of Tomorrow.”
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