6 Degrees of Separation – Can you help solve the challenge?
January 4, 2011 at 11:49 pmA chance discovery of love letters and photographs from 1920’s China inspired the middle section of my latest novel, Paper Lanterns. When I first read these letters, I was more interested in working out how I might weave them into a story and setting of my own. I knew that I would need to change: the names of the people involved; the setting from Canton to Hong Kong; and bring the date forward to 1930.
I quickly became absorbed in the lives of my own fictional characters, Belle, Ivy, Rupert and Shing Mui, but now that Paper Lanterns is makings its way into the hands of readers around the world, I’ve had time to look again at the various photos, letters and other papers that came in the box found by my husband (see the article in the Sunday Mercury) and I’d love to find out more about the real people involved in these letters.
If there is any truth in the theory of 6 degrees of separation, a reader of this blog might know someone who knows someone whose (great)grandfather, grandmother, aunt or uncle happened to be in China between about 1915 and 1930 and had some connection with The Asiatic Petroleum co. (South China), Ltd.
This photo was taken in April 1929, almost nine years after the final letter to Mr Bruce written by the married English woman called Bessie, whose love letters gave me the voice for my invented character, Belle River’s journal extracts.
I’m looking for information about any descendants of the man called Douglas Bruce (my inspiration for Rupert MacFarlane). He was employed by The Asiatic Petroleum Company, and it was his effects that turned up in the box of miscellaneous paper items at an auction in 2005.
Here is a close-up of Mr Bruce (on the right) and it would be nice to imagine that the woman on the left might be Bessie’s friend, Margaret Hartle (Belle River’s close friend Ivy, in my novel).
In my next few posts I’ll be showing photos of Mr Bruce with two young women on a beach, one of whom is very likely to be Bessie. There is also a wedding picture that includes Mr Bruce as a guest. I am hoping that I can start to identify some of these people in various other photographs.
The group picture below and the list of names at a tennis tournament have helped me to name at least one more of the men. The list was written by Bessie herself, but unfortunately, there is only a tiny glimpse of part of her face on the far right bottom corner.
PLEASE DO FORWARD THIS LINK to as many of your friends and acquaintances as possible, and ask them all to send the link on in the same way. I think that this type of search is more likely to be successful if readers are completely open-minded and are willing to contact people who are very unlikely to have a direct contact with a descendant of Mr Bruce, Bessie, or Margaret Hartle. 6 degrees of separation might not be an exact science, but who knows what we might discover if people across the world are prepared to send this link to enough other people.
I’LL BE SENDING A FREE COPY OF PAPER LANTERNS TO ANYONE WHO CONTACTS ME WITH NEW INFORMATION about Douglas Bruce, Bessie, and Margaret Hartle. I’m not asking information about Shing Mui. Those of you who have read the novel will understand why.
Keep checking on this site for more pictures and letters about the REAL LIFE love letters that inspired the middle section of Paper Lanterns
January 9th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
[...] around that time. (There were two studio photos of young Chinese women – the one here, and in my previous post has her name written on it. ) I’m not sure whether or not the girl below is a younger version of [...]
January 16th, 2011 at 11:42 pm
[...] you’d like to read the previous posts about this challenge, just scroll down to 6 Degrees of Separation – Can you help solve the challenge?strong> Please forward this to anyone who might be interested in helping me with this challenge [...]
January 30th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s [...]
February 4th, 2011 at 10:50 am
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s China: [...]
February 13th, 2011 at 10:42 pm
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s China.) [...]
February 20th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s China.) [...]
February 27th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s China.) [...]
March 7th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s China.) [...]
March 28th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
[...] out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s [...]