Preacher, author, and explorer, John Hedley was an avid writer and photographer who wrote several books about his adventures. Many of his original photographs are here published for the first time.

Hedley left England's industrial hub of Northumbria in 1897 to perform missionary work in rural north China on behalf of a small Protestant denomination: the Methodist New Connexion. He arrived just before the devastating Yellow River Flood of 1898, joined the flight from the Boxer Rebellion, and witnessed the birth of the First Chinese Republic.

Between 1904 and 1906 he travelled Mongolia to assess missionary prospects. Collecting physical and topographical data as well, he published his observations and was subsequently named a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

John Hedley in North China & Inner Mongolia combines a wealth of Hedley's works and letters with other documentation, including the mission's own newsletter, Gleanings in Harvest Fields, to produce a very readable study of his China in its political, social, and economic contexts.