Esther Tyldesley is an academic based in the School of Literature, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, where she is a professor in Asian Studies.
Tyldesley undertook her BA at the Robinson College; University of Cambridge, where she studied Chinese from 1990 to 1994.
She also spent four years working for a rural teacher's college for voluntary overseas observers in Guizhou Province, China.
[4] Tyldesley specialises in Chinese-to-English translations, primarily in the literature field.
Her notable translations include The Good Women of China; which has since been translated into various languages and serialised as an audio drama for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Yan Geling's Little Aunt Crane; where her translation was praised for: "flowing naturally while remaining faithful to the original, allowing the flavour of Yan's language to shine through"[5] - the novel was also awarded a grant by the Chinese Society of Authors, and Laing Hong's The Sacred Clan; winner of the PEN Translates Award in December 2021.