Laurence Westwood
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lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social
Laurence Westwood
@lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social
crime novelist interested in Chinese law, both dynastic and modern, and possibly retired investigator

www.laurencewestwood.com
Pinned
The books...
#histbookchat My latest piece in The Perfect Voice, Mumbai,
on China, hostage diplomacy, and the passing of Anthony Grey (1938-2025) - with thanks to Mister Banerjee's editorial red pen! @shoumojitb.bsky.social #sinology #journalism

www.theperfectvoice.in/post/anthony...
Anthony Grey: The Reporter Beijing Tried to Break
A young British correspondent sent to decode Mao’s China instead became one of the earliest symbols of hostage diplomacy.Anthony Grey, who passed away last month aged 87, first learned what it meant t...
www.theperfectvoice.in
November 18, 2025 at 9:55 AM
#histbookchat Some #CrimeFiction from me today: Death in Berlin by M. M. Kaye (1955, this edition 1985) #amreading #BookSky 📚💜
November 14, 2025 at 10:45 AM
#histbookchat Part 1 of Sino-Japanese War by John Dong out now from Helion - Part 2 due Spring 2026

www.helion.co.uk/military-his...
November 12, 2025 at 10:08 AM
It's fish tank cleaning day and the fish 🐟🐠🐡🦈wanted some #blues so I chose their namesake - they were so excited! - Paper Doll by Samantha Fish (2025) 🎵🎶🎵 - very cool
November 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Laurence Westwood
Street poster, Beijing - The Core Values of Chinese Socialism. And, in case you were wondering they are the National (Prosperity, Democracy, Civility, Harmony), the Social (Freedom, Equality, Justice, Rule of Law) and the Individual (Patriotism, Dedication, Integrity, Friendship). So now you know….
November 8, 2025 at 8:18 AM
#histbookpost sadly, no new book offering this week but a long (64pg😬) paper on Xi Jinping's concept of law and the future of law in China: Zeming Liu & Benjamin Liebman: Redefining Law in China
#law #China #research #funread
Open Access
American Journal of Comparative Law 2025
November 7, 2025 at 9:39 AM
#BookSky 📚💜Starship Troopers is to be filmed again. My thoughts on this and on Robert Heinlein's (most?) controversial novel in The Perfect Voice with editorial thanks to the esteemed Mister Banerjee @shoumojitb.bsky.social #sciencefiction

www.theperfectvoice.in/post/the-gal...
November 6, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Listen to Chris Horton talk about his new primer on Taiwan, "Ghost Nation," on Episode 26 of the China Books Podcast: chinabooksreview.com/2025/11/04/e...
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Great stuff from Tonio Andrade on China and the origins of gunpowder #sinology #histbookchat
November 5, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Latest read! #histbookchat The Deep Silence by Douglas Reeman (1967, this the 2003 reprint) - the Royal Navy's newest nuclear submarine, HMS Temeraire, is in Asian waters and sailing into danger off the coast of Red China.... #exciting
November 2, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Latest arrival for Halloween!! The Revolutionists by Jason Burke (2025) @jasonburke2.bsky.social from The Bodley Head as
as supplied by the Scream (Drama) Queen of Dromore herself 🧙‍♀️🧹🐈, Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books
@bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social

#histbookchat #BookSky📚💜
October 31, 2025 at 10:24 AM
#histbookchat podcast for the Japan specialists....
This week's ARB @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast features Nicholas Gordon in conversation with Stephen C Mercado (“Japanese Spy Gear and Special Weapons: How Noborito’s Scientists & Technicians Served in the 2nd World War & the Cold War”) @penswordbooks asianreviewofbooks.com/podcast-with...
October 30, 2025 at 12:14 PM
#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜 #CrimeFiction I recommended this to @yorgosmoraitis.bsky.social for his class some time ago and decided I ought to read it for myself!!😂The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kai (2014) trans. Jeremy Tiang (2016) - six interlocking murder investigations moving backwards 1/2
October 24, 2025 at 9:22 AM
latest read! #BookSky 📚💜 #histbookchat Some more fiction from Douglas Reeman: The Iron Pirate (1986)
October 19, 2025 at 1:29 PM
It's fish tank cleaning day and the fish 🐟🐠🐡🦈wanted some #spacerock and an album they hadn't heard before, so Into The Woods by Hawkwind (2017) - really, really good!!🎵🎶🎵
October 18, 2025 at 10:50 AM
#BookSky 📚💜 Latest read! Death in Kashmir by M.M. Kaye (1953, this edition 1984) #CrimeFiction #amreading

It's 1947, and there are both spies and murder on the glittering ski slopes of Kashmir...
October 12, 2025 at 11:01 AM
#histbookchat #BookSky 📚💜 I wrote about the Tea & Horse Agency keeping the Song Dynasty alive (militarily) in my first Magistrate Zhu novel, now for a greater history of the horse: Raiders, Rulers, & Traders (2024) by @davidchaffetz.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Very cool! Looking forward to this! 👏 #histbookchat #sinology
Many things shocked John and I as we were finishing Stars That Pause: 2,000 Years of UFO Encounters & Lore, but the sheer number of classical accounts that match up to anonymous experiences today is wild!

Excerpt from an ancient Chinese UFO account

Waiting for An Encounter (1/3)
October 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
#BookSky 📚💜 #CrimeFiction Latest read! Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto (1958) trans. Jesse Kirkwood (2022) as supplied by the Queen of the Dromore Underworld herself, Aunty Lesley of Bridge Books @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 10:32 AM
#sinology #law Talk from Prof Liang Cai on the 15th Oct if you're in HK - doesn't appear to be on Zoom, sadly - and she has her book coming out at the end of the month, £110 also sadly, no sign of a paperback - Convict Politics, #China 221BCE - 23CE #law
October 4, 2025 at 2:10 PM
#histbookchat #sinology New arrival!! Politicizing Business by Ning Leng from @universitypress.cambridge.org as supplied by Aunty Lesley of @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social
who, this month, is celebrating 30 years of selling books to the (once) literary impoverished inhabitants of Dromore!!
October 3, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Great review by @susanbk.bsky.social of the new novel from Kristen Loesch #fiction #China #BookSky 📚💜
Today in the ARB: Susan Blumberg-Kason reviews “The Hong Kong Widow” by Kristen Loesch @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social asianreviewofbooks.com/the-hong-kon...
October 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
It's fish tank cleaning day and the fish wanted some earlyish Pink Floyd, so Obscured by Clouds (1972). This one's a bit of a forgotten album but the fish & I love it & I can always hear echoes (see what I did there) of the famous album to come the very next year(Dark Side of the Moon) 🎵🎶🎵
September 27, 2025 at 11:11 AM