GOOD TIMES/BAD TIMES

It’s been slightly bonkers since I last posted. Rarely do so many great things collide in the space of a few weeks. After a slow start, reviews for ‘House of Lies’ have increased significantly and they are, to a woman, smashing. Not one, but two cover reveals were released for my Joshua Thane spy thrillers, ‘A Deadly Trade’ and ‘Final Target.’  My freshly revamped website was rolled out, care of Tony Astley at ‘Six Till Nine’. It looks a lot less busy and jolly than the earlier version. Lean, mean and generally deadly was the brief and this absolutely delivers. You can check it out on: www.evseymour.co.uk

While all this was going on, we managed to steal away to Anglesey during a spectacularly fine couple of days. With recharged batteries, I was able to pick up where I left off with freelance editing and my own work. As mentioned in previous posts, I try to avoid reading fiction for pleasure when I’m writing. Last night, I closed the final page on a book I’d been meaning to read ever since it was first published in 1991. In some ways, I’m glad I left ‘Wild Swans’ by Jung Chang this long because I probably have a greater psychological and historical perspective now than I did then.

The subjugation of an entire nation with millions of inhabitants under Mao is almost unbelievable until you read how it was carried out. Nobody was untouched by his ‘teachings’ and manipulative abuse of power. It ripped families apart, destroyed minds, driving many to suicide, and laid waste to the land itself. Even grass was deemed ‘bourgeois’. It allowed those with petty grievances and small minds to inform on neighbours who, according to the self-righteous, didn’t espouse Maoism. Many tormentors were women and it was commonplace for children to take part in beating teachers. With so many rules and regulations, it was easy to fall foul. People stopped thinking their own thoughts in case they inadvertently expressed them. In essence, fear stalked the streets, and humiliation was the order of the day. Those who were lucky were sentenced to hard labour. The unfortunate were denounced and tortured. There were times I winced and badly wanted to close the book. But…

I was knocked out by the sheer strength of human resilience and depth of kindness. I was amazed how many managed to hang on to their sanity and their moral principles despite brutal orders to abandon them. The term ‘brainwashing’ is often misapplied, but what occurred is as close as it gets and on an epic scale. It’s worth stating that the current President of China, Xi Jinping, grew up during these extraordinarily turbulent times. He could not have come through untouched, unscathed or unchanged.

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about people keeping quiet when they should have spoken out. I refer to the casting couch culture of Hollywood. While repression and ‘shutting people up’ comes in many guises, comparisons with dictators are unwise.  In China, during Mao’s rule, the threat was not simply to one’s career prospects (although anyone with an education and decent job was deemed inferior and banished to rural penury) your life and the lives of your children were on the line.   Thank goodness that, with Mao’s demise, China began its slow road to peace, sanity and prosperity.   It’s a comfort to know that powerful men, and also women, come but inevitably go.