Reading Murder at the Docks with your book club?
Murder at the Docks is a family story spanning Edwardian Hong Kong, Empire, Japanese civilian internment and the aftermath of war, reconstructed from fifteen years of archival and family research. I’ve put together some discussion questions here specifically for reading groups, alongside my Missing Pages essays exploring the historical questions behind the book.
You might find the following questions interesting to contemplate and find answer for, in order to help your understanding and enjoyment of the book.
- Does the absence of information to a researcher, either through conflicting sources; sources that go missing; silence of the main actors involved discredit their interpretation of events? Or how might this actually represent what history is? How effectively do you feel that Murder at the Docks overcomes the fact of overwhelmingly missing information?
- How much of the history of the Far East in the Twentieth Century came as a surprise to you? Do you think we have overlooked that part of our history and do you think this is a problem at all?
- What was the British Middle Class?
- Think of some pivotal moments in Murder at the Docks:
– The Washington Conference
– The September 1906 Typhoon and Tsunami in Hong Kong
– Grimson’s deft self-appointment as interim governor of Honk Kong, August 1945.
How might history have moved in a different direction had any of these not happened (or happened differently)? - Discuss some of the reasons the book suggests Britain recovered so poorly after World War II despite “winning”.
Readers who would like to explore some of the questions behind the book can also follow The Missing Pages, where I write about the gaps, contradictions and silences that arise when trying to reconstruct lives from the historical record.
For book clubs reading Murder at the Docks, I am also happy, where practical, to join a discussion online for 20–30 minutes and answer questions about the story and the research behind it.
Contact me here.