Fragrant Harbour is the story of four people whose intertwined lives span Asia's last seventy years. Tom Stewart leaves England just before it is hit by the Great Depression to seek his fortune, and finds it in running Hong Kong's best hotel. 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. Dawn Stone is an English journalist who becomes the public face of money and power and big business. Matthew Ho is a young Chinese entrepreneur whose life has been shaped by painful choices made long before his birth, and who is now facing his own difficulties, and opportunities, in the twenty-first century. The complacency of colonial life in the 1930s; the horrors of the Japanese occupation during the Second World War; the post-war boom and transformation of Hong Kong into a laboratory of capitalism at its most cut-throat; the growth of the Triads; the handover of the city to the Chinese - all these are present in Fragrant Harbour, an epic novel of one of the world's great cities.
Pirates, plagues, pistols and poisons; with adventure of all varieties, the third instalment of the popular 'Tales' series is a rollicking journey into colonial Hong Kong. A collection of historical odds and ends - stories, quotations, cartoons, postcards and drawings - recount in thrilling detail how a 'barren rock' seemingly destined to fail rose to become one of the richest trading outposts in Asia.
A "New York Times" Notable Book, "The Debt to Pleasure" is a wickedly funny ode to food as the novel's snobbish narrator instructs readers in his philosophy on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of the menu.
In its culinary arts, as in its culture, Hong Kong represents a marriage of East and West, of tradition and change. Today, cooks who are masters of Asian cuisine are using new ingredients and techniques to transform standard recipes into easy-to-prepare, healthful dishes. Hom's informative notes, a section on wine, and a list of the city's best restaurants make this guide a must.
As a former British colony (1842-1997) and then a Special Administrative Region (from 1997 onwards) practicing the One Country Two Systems policy with the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong has witnessed at all times how relations are formed, dissolved and refashioned amidst changing powers, identities and narratives, given that the decisions that had moved the city in the past were not made upon the consensus of the local population. In its post-handover, post-hangover years, the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Protests among other events have revealed the multiple appearances and connotations of Hong Kong's local. At the intersections between real-life events, cultural production and consumption, the book is an interdisciplinary study that extracts and examineslocal relations through the lens of the things and places that stand or that have once stood for Hong Kong's local. With cultural icons as an agency, the book offers lessons to learn from the city by opening up manifold postcolonial perspectives to confront and interrogate the volatile experiences in the new millennia - unprecedented since the Cold War era - shared by Hong Kong and other regions. After all, what does it mean, or take, to live in the contemporary world when the local, global and national are constantly given new meanings?
Sutton doesn’t like the three a.m. phone calls. He should change his number—that way Rawson wouldn’t have it. Sutton’s best mate is a hero cop, but strife flows through him like a highway. He was supposed to die young. Maybe Millar will do it for him: she’s the hot young detective from Internal who still thinks intellect and integrity will take her places. If she doesn’t watch her step, she might find out what they are... This is the story of good dogs living in a bad-news town—a fragrant harbour city where the judges are dead, the vendettas lively and every glittering fortune hides a sin. An epic novel of corruption, murder and the true nature of justice, Winter Traffic announces the arrival of a compelling new voice in literary crime. Stephen Greenall was born in Moree in 1976. His writing has appeared in Overland and he won the 2014 NSW Writers Centre Varuna Fellowship. Winter Traffic is his first novel and was commended in the 2014 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. ‘The strangeness of timelines and darkly evocative language is drawing me deeper into its spell. Set in Sydney, the writing is akin to muscular Nick Cave-esque lyrics telling of high-class escorts in eastern suburbs brothels, bikies and laconic tough-guys nursing broken hearts. One for the dark poets.’ Abbey’s Bookshop ‘An edgy, hard-nosed thriller set in a Sydney luminous from the outside and dark within, held together by corruption, money, and revenge. Read this one in dim lighting with a hard drink in your hand.’ Readings ‘Greenall has created a fast-paced tale with an original plot whose twists and turns keep the reader guessing while remaining wholly believable. The intricacies of the plot will stay in the mind of the reader long after the last page is turned.’ BookMooch ‘Sydney's underbelly has been exposed before in crime fiction, but Greenall's visceral verse gives the genre an eloquent kick in the guts.’ Herald Sun ‘The publishers assert Stephen Greenall is in the tradition of Peter Temple, but the real resemblance is that mad dog of mayhem and murder James Ellroy...His style is nothing if not energised. It is slick with the sweat of its own throbbing enthusiasm. A sort of heroic poetry, a bit like the wobbling camera in a Michael Mann film.’ Saturday Paper ‘Emotions run high throughout the novel and the language, like the characterisation, is extravagant, often melodic, reminiscent here of the poems of Ern Malley, falling into the rhythms of Banjo Paterson...the book rewards by its very oddity, its driving rhythms and the audacious language in which it frames it complex plot.’ SA Weekend 'Winter Traffic is lyrical, rhythmic and frequently poetic...It is a story of simple truths bound in complexity, a story as fresh and colloquial as it is ancient and universal. I have read some strikingly original fiction in my time but Stephen Greenall’s debut stands out amongst them.’ Booklover Book Reviews ‘Stephen Greenall's Winter Traffic takes hardboiled crime and gives it a literary twist...And, as this Sydney demimonde of rock stars and bikies, hidden vices and cops gone bad resolves into view, you can't help noticing Greenall's prose has real teeth. It's much more jagged and alive than most writing in the genre.’ Sydney Morning Herald 'This is a carefully crafted book. There are rich passages of sharply witty dialogue that have their own inner grim humour. And the author is saying something about the relationship of modern Australian cosmopolitan life to its early roots in violence, but beyond that, of the basic primitiveness of human behaviour: tribal, violent, power-driven, gender-based...An impressive first novel.’ Otago Daily Times ‘This lyrically written novel takes the reader on a dark ride through the sordid underbelly of the glittering harbour city.’ Canberra Times ‘Greenall creates a plausible story of corruption, professional ambition and summary justice, where compromise is the primary ethical status of actors in a troubled moral order...Winter Traffic is a book that shows potential and rewards the reader.’ Australian ‘An experiment in both style and language, this is a literary detective novel that goes well beyond the usual parameters...The story will keep the readers guessing until the end.’ Good Reading ‘By the end of the opening chapter, four people are dead, one is traumatised and another has signed his own death warrant. An absorbing tale of corruption and crime in Sydney unfolds at a frenetic clip.’ Qantas The Australian Way ‘Stephen Greenall’s Winter Traffic unveils murder and corruption in Sydney with a poetic, Temple-esque lyricism.’ Toni Jordan, Sydney Morning Herald’s Year in Reading
Hong Kong was first captured on camera when the British arrived to lay claim to its ‘fragrant harbour’ in 1841. Its fascinating history has been documented through photography ever since – from its rapid expansion as a Crown Colony to its handover to China in 1997 and its present status as one of the world’s leading international financial centres. Pairing rare and previously unpublished photographs with contemporary views taken from the same location, Hong Kong Then and Now highlights the rich and varied history of this constantly evolving metropolis, from Victoria Harbour, the Hong Kong Club and the Star Ferry to Kowloon Walled CIty, Chek Lap Kok Airport and the gleaming skyscrapers of its central banking district.Sites include: Victoria Harbour, the Peak, the Star Ferry Pier, Man Ho Temple, Ladder Street, Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong Club, Prince's Building, HSBC, Noonday Gun, Happy Valley Racecourse, Tiger Balm Garden, Peninsula Hotel, Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon Walled City, Shenzhen, Repulse Bay, Chek Lap Kok Airport, St. Paul's (Macau).
THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER, NOW AN AWARD-WINNING NETFLIX HIT 'Effortlessly brilliant . . . hugely moving and outrageously funny.' Observer 'A treat to read.' The Times 'The great London novel of the twenty-first century.' New Statesman 'Brimming with perception, humane empathy and relish . . . a capital achievement.' Sunday Times The award-winning adaptation of Capital is now available on Netflix: a moving, funny, and keenly insightful story of London on the brink of the financial crisis. The residents of Pepys Road, London - a banker and his shopaholic wife, an elderly woman dying of a brain tumour, the Pakistani family who run the local shop, the young football star from Senegal and his minder - all receive anonymous postcards with a simple message: We Want What You Have. Who is behind it? What do they want? As the mystery of the postcards deepens, the world around them is turned upside down by the financial crash. A state-of-the-nation novel told with compassion, humour and unflinching truth, Capital tracks a year in the life of the Pepys Road residents as their lives are changed beyond recognition. John Lanchester's book Capital was a Sunday TImes bestseller w/c 19-02-2012
Over the last two decades, reading groups have become increasingly popular in the UK and the USA. More and more people seem to be interested in sharing their reading experiences and hearing other readers discuss their views on books, whether this is online, through the mass media, or in face-to-face contexts. In light of this explosion in popularity of reading groups, this ethnographic study focuses on several reading groups based across a variety of settings: public libraries, public houses and in readers' homes. A range of methods are used to investigate the practices of the individual readers and the groups, including participant observation, interviews, and audio-recordings of meetings. Reading groups are found to be highly ritualized and potentially competitive places in which matters of identity and taste are often at stake. The groups studied are conceptualized as communities of practice, and the literary interpretations and evaluations offered within each group are shown to be a product of shared norms established by this group.
INTRODUCED BY SARAH WATERS 'Every one of her books is a treat and this is my favourite, because of its wonderful cast of characters, and because of the deftness with which Taylor's narrative moves between them ... A wonderful writer' SARAH WATERS In the faded coastal village of Newby, everyone looks out for - and in on - each other, and beneath the deceptively sleepy exterior, passions run high. Beautiful divorcee Tory is secretly involved with her neighbour, Robert, while his wife Beth, Tory's best friend, is consumed by the worlds she creates in her novels, oblivious to the relationship developing next door. Their daughter Prudence is aware, however, and is appalled by the treachery she observes. Mrs Bracey, an invalid whose grasp on life is slipping, forever peers from her window, constantly prodding her daughters for news of the outside world. And Lily Wilson, a lonely young widow, is frightened of her own home. Into their lives steps Bertram, a retired naval officer with the unfortunate capacity to inflict lasting damage while trying to do good. 'Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one's own experience' - ELIZABETH BOWEN 'Always intelligent, often subversive and never dull, Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person's dangerous housewife. Her sophisticated prose combines elegance, icy wit and freshness in a stimulating cocktail' - VALERIE MARTIN 'A magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike' - DAVID BADDIEL
