Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park

 During a recent trip to Sydney, I stayed at Darling Harbour and spent one of my days taking a look around The Rocks. I am currently writing about The Rocks and its history.

I've been fascinated with The Rocks area for many years, dating back to my uni days in the early 80's, so much so it has wound up in the novel I am working on.

I enjoyed looking at the terrace homes and the lane ways, some still paved with cobblestones and short door ways. When you look closely you can see lots of indicators of a time gone by. I found, as always, the area completely fascinating with very rich historical fodder.

I took lots of photos and spent the best part of the day immersed in the history of the place, including a trip to the local museum and visiting Argyle Street and all it has to offer.

Terraces found at the Rocks

Learning about some of the locals and the history of the place got me wondering about what it might have been like to live in The Rocks back in the day and what would a child's life consist of?

A view of tight little rear yards that back onto narrow lanes.

During my research I heard about Ruth Park's book, Playing Beatie Bow, so as soon as I returned to Brisbane I searched on iBooks for it and downloaded an ibook version. I read it on my iPad and phone whenever in transit. It was an enjoyable story and one I had not read before. It was great to read so close after visiting the areas, because the names of the streets and places mentioned in the book were fresh to me from my wanderings around the area.

Time travel features in the story of Playing Beatie Bow and I'm totally interested in time travel and always keen to find out how authors who have ever used this concept in their work makes it happen for their characters. The idea Ms Park used satisfied me and made me believe it was feasible that time travel could happen the way it did in her story.

I talked about this book with some of my friends, some who said they had read it many years ago, back in their school days. But I had not even heard of it. How is this so?

When I first downloaded the book, I naturally thought it would be a children's book (I know, you should never judge a book by its cover), but it didn't take me long to realise it was targeted for an older audience; it is listed as a Young Adults book. Ruth Park used her insight and tackled some very realistic issues that many kids of today's society face each and every day, but manages to successfully weave them through a story that involves the issues that children and society faced one hundred years earlier. The comparisons are interesting, especially the view points of the characters from both eras.

A community garden growing down one of the old lanes

Merriman Street, The Rocks

A Most Immoral Woman by Linda Jaivin

My summer holidays are sadly drawing to a close. They say all good things must come to an end. But I ask, 'Why is this so?' Even though the holidays will pass, I know that it doesn't matter what part of the year it is, I will always be able to read a book. They are my constant companions, when I wish them to be.

I know I've been absent from blogging for a short while. I decided to take a break in order to fit in with the busyness of life so I could get some other things accomplished as well.

I'd like to share some of my holiday reading with you all and for this post I thought I'd start with Linda Jaivin's 'a most Immoral Woman.'

Back in September this year I attended the Brisbane Writers Festival and participated in a number of Writers' workshops, including one on Historical Fiction with Linda Jaivin. At each of the workshops, the authors promote their works and as a result, just like every year, I end my time at the Brisbane Writers Festival with an arm full of new books purchased for my 'stable'. That's the easy part. The hard part is finding time to read them all. So I made an end of year resolution for my holidays this year, that I would read as many titles from my purchases from the Brisbane Writers Festival as I could. As a result, I read a real mix of titles I might not normally reach for. This is a good thing because it stretches me and makes me richer for it. It also confirms what I enjoy reading and what I know is not my cup of tea.

I really didn't know what to expect with the novel, 'a most Immoral Woman'. I really enjoyed Linda's workshop and her stories of China, but I wasn't sure what the real angle of the story would take. I'm glad I read it. I really enjoyed Linda's style of writing and found it very easy to glide over the pages. She kept each chapter short, which I really liked. It moved the story along at a very nice pace.

Jaivin's work in the first instance is fiction, however, it is inspired by real people and real events. Linda Jaivin writes:

"The idea for the novel came to me while reading Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin's 2004 biography of George Ernest Morrison, 'The Man Who Died Twice' (republished in 2007 as The Life and Adventures of Morrison of China). Fascinated by the authors' brief discussion of Morrison's affair with Mae and wanting more information, I turned to my bookshelf and found Cyril Pearl's 1967 classic biography 'Morrison of Peking,' and was then sufficiently intrigued to track down Mae's family archive with its phenomenal collection of love letters from admirers including Willie Vanderbilt Jnr and Congressman John Wesley Gaines, as well as the long-suffering, thrice-engaged George Bew. Of all the written sources I consulted, Morrison's own diaries and letters and the Pearl biography were most central to my understanding of the man himself. Another very important historical source was Peter Slattery's 'Reporting the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5:  Lionel Jame's first wireless transmissions to The Times' (Global Oriental, Folkestone, Kent, England, 2004). "   

(excerpt taken from Acknowledgments, "a most Immoral Woman" page 367)

Every character is flawed in this novel and that made it quite endearing to me. The characters were not perfect, nor was the time in which the story was set. There was an air of turbulence with the war and with Ernest and Mae's affair.

Set in 1904, we find our protagonist, forty-two year old Australian G. E. Morrison, a Peking correspondent for The Times of London, who was considered the most eligible bachelor in China still single and yet to meet his match. But one night he encounters Mae Perkins, the ravishing daughter of a Californian millionaire and a turbulent affair begins.

The backdrop for their encounter is the war between Russia and Japan for domination over northeast China. Morrison's colleague Lionel James has an idea that will revolutionise war correspondence, but only Morrison can help him achieve his goal.

"Inspired by a true story, 'a most Immoral Woman' is a surprising, witty and erotic tale of sexual and other obsessions set in the 'floating world' of Westerners in China and Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. At its heart stands an original and devastatingly honest woman, as seen from the perspective of the extraordinary man who was drawn to love her."

Jaivin's clever writing hooked me at the end of every chapter, enticing me to read on. Knowing that the chapters were short, she usually won out and several chapters further on, I'd decide it was time to do something else. I found the writing flowed well and was interesting in the way she ordered the words upon the page. I found her chapter titles a little frustrating and flowery, but they did alert me to what was coming up next and I must admit sometimes, because of them, I kept reading.

It's a great little read and not really being a war buff, I did actually enjoy learning a little about the war, the people and the variances of cultures brought together during this time.

I recommend this book to those interested in Historical fiction. I don't think Ms Jaivin will disappoint.

Until next time,
happy reading...