But who's that

This getting a book published lark seems mostly to be a happily collaborative process. My publisher isn't one of those scary, high-and-mighty types who you can only get an audience with once in a blue moon. No, with mine its more a matter of exchanging emails until (very) late into the night and using Facebook to make quick contact. But, even then, sometimes they call the shots, and you (or in this case, I), disagree. Guess who wins in that scenario? Case in point is the photo on the back cover - I SO wanted a caption, but 'No, that'll make a good first blog post", I was told. So be it.

The caption would have read: Patricia O'Sullivan, Dennis Clarke (CEO Conrad Asia) and Fr. Denis Hanly at the grave of Inspector Mortimor O'Sullivan, October 2009

Dennis Clarke is the grandson of Detective Sergeant Henry Goscombe Clarke, the other European to lose his life in the Gresson Street Affray of January, 1918. It was Dennis who invited me over to Hong Kong to retrace the footsteps of my grandfather and great-uncle, and accompanied me on a moving and amazing first day around the sites associated with the event, starting with a visit to St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery, Happy Valley. There we were joined by Fr. Denis Hanly, then at St. Margaret Mary Church in Broadwood Road. As cousin Detective Inspector Edmund O'Sullivan's grave is next to Mortimor's (beside Dennis Clarke in the picture), two cousins are in the row behind and that of my aunt, baby Peggy, out of shot at the end of this row, Fr. Hanly blessed all these graves that day. Fr. Hanly, who sadly died in 2014, is still fondly remembered by many in the Catholic community in Hong Kong.