Linda Jaivin on the Great Blusterer Morrison

Regular readers of this blog and of my history of foreign correspondents in China Through the Looking Glass will know that I am no fan of George Earnest Morrison – Morrison of Peking – the most overrated of the legendary foreign correspondents in China. By and large most people seem to have the impression that Morrison was a genius and he was…at covering up who did all his research and often wrote his articles, his bellicose advocacy of the British Empire and ruining people’s reputations through malicious gossip (see Morrison’s diaries in Australia or his published letters which are prime examples of male bitchiness).

Still, my personal dislike of Morrison didn’t stop me rather enjoying Linda Jaivin’s A Most Immoral Woman about Morrison’s infatuation affair with a rich American nympho slapper (who you can’t help liking for her appetites if nothing else) in 1904. Jaivin combines being a Sinologist with writing erotic fiction – not a combination you often come across. I’ve noted Linda’s book before but the other day I came across a video online of Linda talking about and reading from her book at the Australian National University in Canberra. Linda’s always entertaining and worth watching. Click here.

BTW: Earnshaw Books in Shanghai recently republished Morrison’s An Australian in China about his trek from Shanghai to Burma which is worth a read.