Random Things Tours: The Durian Pact by Christopher Howarth

I love political thrillers with an international touch, as long as they are happening purely in the literary realm. We are experiencing way too many international crisis at the same time to wish to experience any more. Those with direct connection in the high realms of politics, can rarely stop thinking about their everyday experiences. Some may even write about it.

Christopher Howarth is an insider of Westminster´s with connections in the British politics and diplomacy. Although the action of his book The Durian Pact happens in the future - not too far, though - many may think about something that he is in fact inspired by real encounters. The curse of people with known access to information: everyone expect you to be aware of well-kept secrets, even those who are no longer secrets.

In that not so far future, China may invade Taiwan which prompts to an unite defense on behalf of the UK and its allies, putting into motion relics of Britain´s colonial defense. In the midst of it, a young MP, Richard Reynolds, privy to important information that is trying to intervene, hoping to stop an inevitable war.

For decades already, China is often portrayed in literary terms as a threatening world power. I remember having read SF French novels with China invading the rest of the world and enjoying it. The Durian Pact though is built around a realistic threat, that is often proclaimed by Chinese officials themselves. Personally, I liked that drop of reality in the sea of political incertitude.  

I appreciated the pace of the book, allowing historical and political details to complement the literary action, which is equally entertaining. 

For readers of political thriller, with a very clear international outreach, The Durian Pact is a recommended read. It also sends you to update your knowledge in terms of British´s colonial power games, which makes the book even more relevant.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

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Random Things Tours: Ghosts of the British Museum by Noah Angell

During my travels, I am always trying to save some time for visiting local museums. In a nutshell, one can revisit historical fragments and periods of time, and learn about the local history and the cultural profile of a country. However, all those museums are in fact built with an intention - the choice of artifacts, texts and stories shared - as usually subsidized by state institutions. People who are deciding the final form of the texts are the results of certain school of thought and institutional footprints that are not innocent either. 

In Ghosts of the British Museum, Noah Angell is deciphering the colonial traces left in the institutional structure as well as internal planning detail of the Museum. His main interest though is to hear stories about the ghosts, imagined or real, encounters with the super natural world of artifacts, including human remains, exposed and brought here against their will. Maybe longing - if you believe in ghosts - for their far away homes they were took - or stolen - from. Bad memories can be as hunting as real ghosts. 

Through interviews with people directly involved at different periods of time in the regular operations within the Museum, Angell is trying to identify the sources of unrest and unusual encounters, while re-writing at the same time institutional histories and identifying perspectives.

Most probably, after reading this book, and some other reflections on the colonial history and the ´ghosts´ of museum artefacts, particularly in Europe, I will never look in the same way at the museums, British or other. 

Noah Angell is a seasoned artist and writer who works with oral inter-generational and social communication, such as storytelling and songs. 

Ghosts of the British Museum is a very provocative yet necessary book and it opens up so many different takes on museum history. Most probably it helps my own researches into identity, history of mentalities and historical representations.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own