Book Review: Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong 1941 (By Tony Banham)

This is a factual and blood-curdling slideshow of the eighteen days of horrifying fighting against the Japanese in Hong Kong in the not-too-distant past.

I belong to the post-50s group who were lucky enough to be born just after the war. While I was growing up, my mother and relatives belonging to her generation seldom talked about their war-time experiences. It was only recently that I heard about some traumatic personal stories told by a primary school teacher of mine, which ignited my interest in reading books about war-time Hong Kong. Reading "Not the Slightest Chance" had a bone-chilling effect on me, and it makes me want to read more on the subject.

In sum, it was a 60,000 (Japanese) against 14,000 (HK Garrison) combat, with the latter comprising soldiers of all nationality: the British Middlesex Regiment, the Royal Scots, the Punjabis (India), the Rajputs (India), the Royal Rifles of Canada (Quebec), the Winnipeg Grenadiers (Manitoba) and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. consisting of British, Chinese locals, Free French, Russians, Scandinavians and Americans.

The valiant men and women who sacrificed their lives (some suffering atrocious tortures in enemies' hands) either in action during the war or later in concentration camps in the defense of the Hong Kong population deserve our and our past generation's utmost and lasting respect and commemoration. The fact that the Hong Kong garrison (or at least the high-ranking officers) were well aware that Hong Kong was in an untenable position, but nonetheless resisted the Japanese invasion with dauntless courage, makes this part of Hong Kong's history especially poignant.

The book just makes me ponder as to why the Chinese Communists and Nationalists were conspicuously absent from the scene of the battleground. Hopefully other books about the 1941 battle that I’m going to read will shine a light.

Brief Synopsis of My Novel and BigLychee's Plug

Brief Synopsis of "Fated and Fateless":-

"The story is set in colonial Hong Kong and spans four decades from the late 1940s.

Prior to October 1987, Wendy has her fill of bad experiences in her childhood and youth until she meets Tony, a Macanese magnate, and becomes his protégé. Despite her ascending career, her romance with Edward, her childhood playmate and Diana’s kid brother, suffers constant sabotage by Diana, who is also Wendy’s archrival by design. Meanwhile, Diana breezes through life and covets the throne of her father’s (Mr. Lee’s) property empire, but her heiress dream proves elusive. Her bad choice of lovers causes her more than a fortune and the love of her life turns out to be her cruelest life lesson.

In October 1987, Wendy and Diana finally come to a face-off when Wendy and Tony act in concert trying to take over Mr. Lee’s company, which attempt is foiled by Diana on a tip-off from a snitch. This reduces Wendy to ruins. At the same time, Diana discovers a startling secret about her mother which could change her fortunes forever."

Hong Kong Blogger BigLychee (formerly Hemlock) mentioned this in his blog post of January 23, 2014:-

“Don’t be fooled by the girly cover. Set in the 1950s-80s era, it’s (judging by the first few chapters) a tale of good versus evil, in which the rags-to-riches heroine works her way up into a position where she might be able to turn one of Hong Kong’s notoriously greedy, cheating real-estate empires into a force for social good, only to come up against a property tycoon’s spoilt daughter, who apparently comes to some sort of sticky end – hopefully, vividly portrayed and extremely unpleasant. It’s sort of Land and the Ruling Class: the Movie. There is possibly a dash of autobiography, as per a first novel; there are also plentiful resemblances to actual people, living or dead, which are of course entirely coincidental. Strictly for hard-core fans of Hongkongiana, obviously, though if/when it appears in Chinese, it could strike a chord like its non-fiction predecessor.”

I'll be posting an excerpt of the novel soon! Keep an eye on this blog!

Paperback Edition of "Fated and Fateless"

With the help of free online tools available at the CreateSpace Independent Publishing platform (an Amazon company), I was able to create a paperback version of my novel, which has just been launched on Amazon.com (U.S.), Amazon.co.uk (U.K.), Amazon.fr (France), Amazon.de (Germany) and other Amazon European sites. Obviously, print-on-demand technology has been instrumental in helping debut fiction authors who are constantly crowded out of the market to get published at no cost.

In about six to eight weeks' time, the paperback version will be accessible by bookstores, online retailers, libraries and academic institutions.

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.com

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.co.uk

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.fr

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.de

I have to admit that I am one of those book readers who still prefer to hold a physical book in my hands and feel the pages while turning, rather than just gluing my eyes to a screen.