Midnight in Peking – Some American Reviews and a New Twitter Feed

First off all things Midnight in Peking in America are on the Twitter feed #whokilledpamela?

I’ll post here too occasionally but up to date reviews and events are all there…

And so I’ll do it a little plug for some of my first US reviews as they’re pretty good.

The Wall Street Journal did a blinder

The New York Post’s Required Reading column got the Neil Heywood link – I imagine this will be a theme in the coming weeks – Dead Brits in Mysterious circumstances now becoming a bit of a specialty for me!

The Seattle Post Intelligencer – I’ll be in Seattle (my first time there) at Elliot Bay Books on Monday May 7th by the way

Time‘s blog review was rather good I’m happy to say

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

How Bad Can the Notion of Heritage and Preservation Get in China?

I’m indebted to the Old China Hand and ever alert Italian Journalist in Beijing Laura Daverio for this photo. Destroy a hutong, rebuild a hutong in fake replica style and then let Colonel Sanders move in with that tradition Jingpai special sauce and then illegally park a crappy German car outside!! Oh dear!!

The Hoover’s and the Astor, Tientsin

Not many know that the regal Astor Hotel on the banks of the Hai River in the heart of the former British Concession of Tientsin (Tianjin) was the favourite hotel of a young American mining engineer by the name of Herbert Hoover who later became the 31^st President of the United States. In reality the Hoover’s only stayed in the Astor for a few weeks in 1899 but that hasn’t stopped the hotel opening a “Hoover Suite” and intimating he was President when he stayed there – not quite, Hoover wouldn’t be the Commander-in-Chief for another 30 years. Still, he did pick up a little Chinese and reportedly used it in the White House when he wanted a private conversation with his wife.

Herbert and Lou Hoover

Midnight in Peking Comes to St Louis – Left Bank Books – May Day

Midnight in Peking, and me, will be at Left Bank Books in St Louis, MO this week on May 1. It somehow seems appropriate to be visiting Left Bank Books on May Day!

Left Bank Books – Central West End

399 N. Euclid Ave.

Saint Louis

Missouri

63108

United States

More details here

Shanghai Power Company…The Gome of its Day

The Shanghai Power Company was the major electricity generator for the International Settlement and also sold electricity into nearby Chinese controlled areas and Frenchtown. But the company was also a retailer, the Gome chain of its day! And, of course, as a company that sold electricity they were rather keen, in 1937, for you to buy electric cookers…

Americans Get Free Copies of Midnight in Peking From Bookreporter

The Bookreporter site is giving away 25 free copies of my book Midnight in Peking to US readers – you just have to go to this site and fill out some form before May 3rd.

Midnight in Peking Comes to Politics & Prose in DC – 28/4/12

I’m greatly looking forward to talking about Midnight in Peking at the Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse on the 28th at 1pm. More details here

The People Who Meet on Boats Between Shanghai and Hong Kong

Thanks to Peter Aspden, the weekend FT’s always readable arts guy, who wrote a column on the newly unveiled and restored Jean Cocteau murals at the Church of Notre Dame de France in Leicester Square (read all about it here). He also mentions in passing that Jean Cocteau met Charlie Chaplin on a boat steaming between Hong Kong and Shanghai. I like the idea of these two meeting and, obviously, I like that it happened on a boat somewhere between Shanghai and Hong Kong. However, it might have been a bit strained as neither man spoke the others language apparently. Still I do know from various biographies of him that Cocteau admired Chaplin but not sure what Chaplin thought of Cocteau. Cocteau of course was an infamous opium fiend!