Illuminating. Shocking. Compelling.

Harvard Professor Ross Terrill, a friend of Rupert Murdoch, advised Richard Nixon and US Senators and was a prize-winning China expert, whom nobody knew was gay, and for over 40 years kept an intimate and sexually explicit diary. This is the first volume.

Ross Terrill was a leading expert on China and the author of several award-winning books which have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. His writings were influential in how Americans came to think about China. Henry Kissinger used Terrill's articles about China, published in the Atlantic, to brief President Richard Nixon on his historic visit to China in 1972. While famed newsman Walter Cronkrite was in China covering the event, Ross Terrill was in the New York CBS television studios providing colorful and penetrating commentary.

Ross traveled in high circles and was friends with Rupert Murdock, prime ministers, US senators, and the politically powerful and well-connected. He was a well-respected political scientist and historian. However, Ross had a secret. Nobody knew that he was gay and very sexually active, a life he wrote about for over 40 years in a very intimate diary.

Breaking the Rules: The Intimate Diary of Ross Terrill is Terrill's frank and raw diary. Often sexually explicit, it sheds light on how this talented and connected man balanced his life between his high-powered connections and his sexual exploits and adventures. The diary and its span of time also show how Ross first struggled with being gay and later embraced it. It reveals changing attitudes about world politics, fame, and gay life.

The diary may shock some and entice others. It is a guilty pleasure that allows us to look through a keyhole to see the life of an extraordinary man. Ross was at the forefront of our emerging modern political world. He was in China during Tiananmen Square. The high and mighty sought his opinions, and his writings influenced our political world. He flew high in the spotlight and explored excesses and pleasures in the shadows. Ross Terrill is a man who lived life to its fullest. His diary is an exceptional document and an engaging read.