From horror stories to fairy tales

During his four years at Cambridge, Ye Junjian developed an extensive network of relationships with the top British intellectuals of the day, including economist John Maynard Keynes and the writers Leonard Woolf and Stephen Spender.

Ye also became close to the playwright and polemicist J. B. Priestly, who often invited him to spend weekends at his house on the Isle of Wight and referred to him as "a Chinese member of my family".

Ye was keen to learn European languages, so during his vacations, he toured Western Europe and learned to speak and read Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.