Shanghai

This book has some great parts, but I found it pretty slow going. I'm not sure if it is to do with the chapter arrangements, but there was a bit if repetition. After an introduction, the chapters are divided along race - so a chapter on the White Russians, another on the British, another on the Chinese. As well as this, the three wars have a chapter each (1927, 1932 & 1937) and a final chapter. Maybe it is that there is coverage of various events in each of the race chapters.

As I say, it had some great parts, such as the anecdote on the first page, which i have shortened down a little from the direct quote: 1932, lord Bangor - We had gone on a walk, in the hopes of getting a pheasant or a duck. Colonel Hayley Bell was one of the party. He had lagged behind to examine an old shrine. Suddenly the rest of us were charged by a water-buffalo. They were very dangerous and hated foreigners, I suppose we smelt differently, but a Chinese child could control them. They let their animal loose on the foreign devil then demand a dollar to drive the brute off.I was up a tree, and my two friends in a shed, the buffalo was shorting and flicking his tail. A Chinese boy arrived and asked for his dollar. I was eager to pay when Hayley Bell appeared on the scene. The beast stamped a foot and lowered its head. Hayley bell walked straight up to it and kicked it hard on the nose. The astonished animal turned tail and lumbered off followed by the urchin. ‘Shock tactics is what it's about' said Hayley Bell as I climbed out of the tree, ‘I am not going to be blackmailed by some snotty-nosed Chinese infant. Just go up to the animal and show it who's master'