A breif confirmation to all fans of Simon Fonthill, 352 Jenkins and the feisty Alice, that the next and eighth Fonthill adventure featuring the three will be published next January 2012 (in hardback, then in paperback the following September) by new publishers Allison and Busby. It's titled THE WAR OF THE DRAGON LADY and is set in the year 1900 against the background of the Boxer Febellion in China.
Why "The Dragon Lady"? Well, Tzui Hsi, the Empress Dowager of China, was sitting on the Manchu Throne in Peking at the turn of the century, having deposed her nephew, the Emperor, when the Rebellion broke out. The Boxers were a cult of young, uneducated peasants who blamed the foreigners living in their country for most of its ills at this time - including the drought in North China which had dried up the wells, irrigation channels and rivers and blighted the rice drop. They took their revenge particularly on the Christian missionaries who populated the villages, brutally murdering men, women and children.
The threat from the Boxers - so called because of their love of martial arts, which paradoxically did not include boxing - would probably have petered out had not the Empress seen in their uprising an excuse to wipe out the influential foreign barbarians encamped in her Empire. So she surreptitiously encouraged the rebels and then aided them with her army.
A once beautiful, third grade concubine, she was a formidable woman in her mid sixties with a porcelain complexion and long, curved fingernails. She had survived years of scheming in the tortuous world of Manchu politics and now possessed total power. Her frequent use of the death penalty earned her the subriquet "Dragon Lady" and she sat back and watched with equanimity in 1900 as the Boxers and her own soldiers laid siege to the Ministers of the foreign powers and their families trapped in the Legation Quarter in the heart of Peking.
Into this cauldron rides Simon Fonthill, his wife Alice and their servant "352" Jenkins, on a visit to Alice's uncle, a British missionary. I reckon their adventures during the rebellion provides one of the best yet Fontill stories.
But then I would, wouldn't I?
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I have been following the Fonthill series with the same enthusiasm I followed Hornblower and Bolitho series. I look forward to this newest story.
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to this, should be a great story but I have to ask how much further can Fonthill go? There are not many Imperial conflicts left before we reach the Great War... he can catch the tail end of the Second Boer War, the Anglo-Ara war in Nigeria, then the British mission to Tibet! Hope we get a book for each :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous regarding the decreasing number of adventures our characters can become involved with. Another factor is their age. Simon is 27 in 1882 and 352, Jenkins is a little older. (The Shangani Patrol) The 2nd Boer war and the Boxer Rebellion occur near the end of the 19th century. That would make Simon around 45 years old with 352, Jenkins slightly older. At those ages being an army scout become less of an option. Being an army scout is a young man's game. Regardless, I look eagerly forward to the next installment of "the Gang."
ReplyDeleteSImply go back to some of the eras like the Sharp Series is said to be planning to do
ReplyDeleteThese are indeed excellent books, I've enjoyed them greatly since I began reading them several months ago. I would love to see a novel for the Tibet expedition! I've also been wondering what our hero does during the Great War.
ReplyDeleteAny idea when The War of The Dragon Lady will be release on audiobook?
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