Description
William Barnes is a 43-year-old ecologist in Hong Kong whose life has been turned upside down since Eva, his Chinese wife, was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to murder her boss.
Desperate to keep this arrest a secret from his friends and colleagues, and to protect his two young children, Barnes finds himself reluctantly drawn into a cathartic reunion at his old school – the scene of a childhood trauma – and a weekend at the Hong Kong rugby sevens tournament with a group of former classmates, during which his sense of alienation and despair swells to a climax.
About the author
Graham Thomas Reels was born in Germany, where his father was serving in the British Army of the Rhine, in 1964. He spent his early childhood in Cyprus, Canada and England, before moving to Hong Kong in 1975, where he attended King George V School in Kowloon, returning to England in 1981 to study at Cricklade College, Andover, and Hatfield Polytechnic.
In 1988 he came back to Hong Kong to take up a lowly position at the Zoology Department of Hong Kong University – the start of a ten-year association with that institution. During the 1990s he studied for a M.Phil. degree at Mai Po marshes before conducting a survey of Hong Kong wetlands followed by a territory-wide Hong Kong biodiversity survey. He also co-founded and edited the Hong Kong natural history newsletter, Porcupine!, and was attached to Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden for a number of years before turning to ecological consultancy.
Since 2009 he has focused on writing and editing. He currently lives in Hampshire, England.
