Simon Leys is a writer, sinologist, essayist, literary critic and author of The Hall of Uselessness, Other People’s Thoughts, The Death of Napoleon, The Wreck of the Batavia & Prosper. Leys studied law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain), Chinese language, literature and art in Taiwan. He went to Hong Kong, before settling down in Australia in 1970. He taught Chinese literature at the Australian National University, where he supervised the honours thesis of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and later was Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney, from 1987 to 1993. In 2004 he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.