Questions for Book Clubs ...
The events in A Death in Peking are set in a turbulent period in China’s history, between the fall of the last imperial dynasty and the triumph of communism. How well did the book describe and explain this period? Did it help increase your knowledge?
A Death in Peking describes how “life was cheap in China”, at least for a good many Chinese. What differences were evident in the police and authorities’ response to the murder once it was established that the victim was in fact a foreigner? Were those responses justified?
The Times newspaper: British Girl’s Death in Peking; Murder Suspected
Pamela Werner: born and raised in China; adopted by a British couple, but probably of Russian blood; educated in schools with pupils from diverse foreign backgrounds; never having been UK. Just how British might Pamela have felt? What does nationality mean to you?
Pamela Werner: born and raised in China; adopted by a British couple, but probably of Russian blood; educated in schools with pupils from diverse foreign backgrounds; never having been UK. Just how British might Pamela have felt? What does nationality mean to you?
The journalist George Gorman was on the payroll of Japanese regime for many years. Some thought he was a traitor. Do you agree?
Pamela was an only child living alone with her elderly adoptive father, ETC Werner, a strange personality who “took little interest or care [over her] while she was alive”. Her adoptive mother died when she was five. What kind of family life do you think she had and how might it have influenced her?
The Legation Quarter: walls, glacis; an island of foreign houses, clubs, parks, and shops; staffed by servants; surrounded by the sights and smells of millions of poor Chinese. Would you have chosen to live within its safe confines or in the Tartar City among the Chinese?
A year after Pamela’s murder, Consul Archer wrote to the Ambassador outlining Sir Edmund Backhouse’s Japanese revenge murder theory. At the time Archer had no reason to doubt the account. And yet he recommended keeping the news from ETC Werner for fear that “he would move Heaven and Earth for vengeance on the Japanese, get questions asked in Parliament etc etc and generally land us in an impossible diplomatic situation”. Would you have done the same?
Rebellions, bandits, warlords, Japanese hegemony, years of civil war between nationalists and communists. How safe would you have felt as a foreign resident in 1930s China? At what stage would you have left the country and perhaps risked losing your home and wealth?
The Chinese police offered a $1000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the murderer(s). A few days later Werner offered $5000. He also paid agents to find witnesses. What are the pros and cons of paying for information?
Forty years after receiving secret intelligence from Sir Edmund Backhouse, former consular officer Gordon Creighton was furious with Hugh Trevor-Roper’s and his book exposing Backhouse as a fraudster. How easy is it to admit that something you believed in and valued for a long time is not just wrong, but is in fact a lie?
Werner appears to have gone to his grave believing in the guilt of Prentice and Cappuzzo, although having dropped the name of Knauf. Do you agree with the author’s assessment of Werner and his case against his suspects? Do you think Werner’s theories possessed merit? What does the evidence support?
A Death in Peking explores the lives of many people: Pamela, ETC Werner, Prentice, Knauf, Cappuzzo, Pinfold, Gorman, Backhouse, Cowan, Dennis, to name but a few. Which do you relate to most and why?
