Fragrant Harbour

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But what these films preserve is a largely lost Hong Kong, a city whose recent past is vanishing and whose ever-shifting landscape is fading from recognition. Agreeing a compromise, his father sent him to study machine draughtsmanship at the Knirr School of Art, Munich, with the thought that this would give his son a skill he might apply professionally. Though he is the son of a Kent publican, and had never been much east of Whitstable in early life, Stewart has inherited or acquired the emotional insufficiency of the Empire-building upper-class male. Here, for one year prior to the beginning of the war, Vaughan and Passmore would reside, painting, listening to music and visiting the ballet.

His books have been translated into numerous languages and his illustrations have met with critical acclaim, with both ‘This Is London’ and ‘This Is New York’ named ‘Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year’ by the New York Times in 1959 and 1960 respectively. Then the last of the Sung emperors came here in the thirteenth century, fleeing the Mongols, Kubla Khan among them, he of the stately pleasure-dome where Alph the sacred river ran.This is one I have been meaning to read for some time now but have never got around to it – your review suggests to me that this might have been wise! The class-ridden and racially divided society of the 1930s is given the brutal awakening of the Japanese occupation. Both books provided somewhat quirky endings but I'll certainly be reading more of his work in the future.

For further information about your statutory rights, contact your local authority Trading Standards department or consumer advice centre (for example the Citizen's Advice Bureau if you are in the UK). Dawn Stone (real name Doris) charts her climb up the career ladder, from a local newspaper in Blackpool to the nationals in London, before accepting a job offer in glamorous Hong Kong in 1995. As others have mentioned, this is an ambitious but highly readable novel, and Lanchester's writing really brings Hong Kong to life. Sister Maria is a beautiful and uncompromising Chinese nun whom Stewart meets on the boat out from England;their friendship spans decades and changes both their lives.

After the allied victory, Stewart builds up his hotel business, while coming to terms with every local variety of graft and criminality. John Lanchester was brought up in Hong Kong and this story about a man who travels from England to Hong Kong before the second world war and lives the rest of his life there is very well told with enough twists and turns and surprises to keep you on your toes. Against this backdrop, Stewart's life, and particularly his relationship with Maria, a Chinese nun he first meets as he is travelling out from England in 1935, unfolds. Other cancelled products: If you want to cancel products that are not damaged or incorrectly supplied, then you must inform us of this within seven working days following the date of receipt in accordance with the Distance Selling Regulations or otherwise as soon as possible. What he has to say about the city is complex and thoughtful and has all the makings of a great, epic story.

Tschudi was first introduced to the linocut when, still a school-girl, she saw an exhibition of the colour cuts of animals by Norbertine Bresslern-Roth (1891-1978). The word ‘Hong Kong’ (or 香港 for those who can) is an approximate phonetic rendering of the spoken Cantonese, and the Cantonese word actually means ‘fragrant harbour’. The central character is Tom Stewart, an Englishman in his 80s looking back on his life as an expat in the “fragrant harbour” (Cantonese for Hong Kong).I think there is quite a bit of Lanchester the journalist (and he is a good one) in Lanchester the novelist, as you observe in your review. Visit the genteel colonial centre, including the long-gone Hong Kong Club; explore the waterfront streets around Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, before the major land reclamations of the 60s and 70s pushed them inland. Fragrant Harbour is the story of four people whose intertwined lives span Asia's last seventy years. Not sure if the first part of the novel was necessary and the main female character in this part was not particularly likeable. John Lanchester has written five novels, The Debt to Pleasure , Mr Phillips , Fragrant Harbour , Capital and The Wall , and three works of non-fiction: Family Romance , a memoir; Whoops!