Fragrant Harbour

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The novel ends three years after the Mainland Chinese takeover, with Hong Kong as greedy, corrupt, and corrupting as when Stewart first landed there. 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.

All enjoyed his ruthless life the more keenly because the author was the blameless food correspondent of a national newspaper.A city trapped between two cultures – in a perpetual sense of adolescence, trying out new styles to see where it belongs. Set in Hong Kong from 1935 to the present, he follows a man traveling on a ship to start a new life. He attended school from the age of seven for at least two years, and at the age of nine – or such was his claim – he may have been employed as cabin boy to the fishermen working the waters off the Cornish coast. That said, I still ate up the book in a matter of days, and found myself caught completely off-guard by some unexpected plot surprises.

Spanning a good 50 years of Hong Kong history the novel has a compelling cast of characters and gives an interesting picture of how the territory has evolved during that time.The result is a novel that proves he is among our most versatile and talented contemporary novelists. As I sit on the flight bound for Heathrow, I look at the strange yet familiar night sky one last time, hoping it won’t get too unrecognisable the next time I am back.

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. 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). Lanchester intertwines personal histories and the city's history with great skill, showing how the past lives on, even in a city as resolutely modern as Hong Kong.

In 1951 Trevelyan married Mary Fedden (see artists) and the couple travelled widely, in Europe, Africa, India and the USA, before settling in London, Durham Wharf, on the banks of the River Thames, where he set up his etching studio. An exceptionally gifted sketcher, Underwood was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy where he studied life-drawing under the tutelage of E.