The Slaves Of Xi Ling

The Slaves Of Xi Ling



Copyright. Miss Irene Clearmont 2011 (October)
- Thanks to S.C. for the idea of setting a tale in those times and for calling Sax Romer to mind.
- Please note that this is written in a rather 'Flashman Style'. Theresfore it starts with a preamble about lost documents etc.



Dear Reader,

This is an extract from a document found in a second-hand bookshop in Tottenham Court Road, London. It lay inside an editor?s proof copy of Sax Romer?s unpublished novel, ?The Whores Of Fu Manchu?. Take it as it stands, there is no way to prove that the events written here ever occurred as written.

The style is, as one would expect, a little Edwardian or Victorian and the author is indeed inclined to use over-purple prose. So have a little patience with the writer, who I believe, is reliving his terrible experiences as his pen writes the words!

My research has showed no certain link between manuscript and Romer, also known by his birth name of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward. And I have means beyond the normal scholar to find out that which I want to know!

On the other hand the internal evidence suggests a date of between 1911 when he wrote ?Little Tich? and the first of the famous ?Fu Manchu? books in 1913, ?The Mystery of Fu Manchu?. I tend to think that this undocumented trip really happened, just at the time when the Manchu Emperors fell and the Warlords came into their power...

You decide...
Irene xxx


The Slaves Of Xi Ling.

Preface