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drawn in a manner matching the gravity of the story. Instead, they have a frivolous, cartoon-like quality and contribute nothing at all.
The contents of the rest of the book include old photographs, and reproductions of old maps and documents. These, for me, are the best parts as they are a rich source of historical material - and also extremely interesting. There is an enormous "Notes" section, some of which are very informative. There is, however, quite a lot of extraneous material in the book - and in the "Notes" - which can really only be described as "filler."
The tantalising question for this reviewer is Gillian's objective in compiling this book. Much is made of the contention that The Back Door is Hong Kong's contribution to the genre of "future war fiction." Quite possibly so, but it is a pretty modest contribution and was probably cobbled together in little more than a few days. It pales considerably when compared with, for example, General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War: August 1985 (Sidgwick and Jackson, London and Macmillan, New York, 1978). Gillian's book represents an enormous investment in time - a Bickley trademark - but one really has to wonder whether the time could not have been better spent. For example, an historical account of the development of Hong Kong's defences up to World War Two would make an excellent subject for a book and would permit a serious, academic study of an under-researched subject. Such a study could refer to The Back Door to illustrate the anxieties in Hong Kong at the time. Instead, a pretty mediocre piece of writing has become the raison d'être for Gillian's book. Expressed another way, do we really want to know that 'Inspector Hannah' in The Back Door in fact, Sergeant 1891 Hannah of the Hong Kong Police, plus the hundreds of other titbits in the "Notes"?
was,
However, Gillian has put a great deal of effort into this highly unusual book and I hope that it sells millions.
PETER HALLIDAY
See The Battle of Hong Kong: A Note on the Literature and the Effectiveness of the Defence elsewhere in this issue.