The White Rajah by Tom Williams
Tuesday, 23 August 2011 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It's ages since I've started reading a book and then been 100% annoyed at the world that it won't let me just sit there and finish it all in one go, but The White Rajah by Tom Williams has totally been that book! As it was, it was there waiting for me in it's Amazon-cardboarded glory when I got home last night, and because Sir James Brooke is my new boyfriend (thank you
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And there is just something about it!
Granted, I was predisposed to be interested cos it's about Brooke, who I met at the National Portrait Gallery:
and fell in love with a bit because he's just got something, and fought pirates, and adventured around the world at the same time as all the boys I'd been researching for my defunct phd, and has curly brown hair and look at the way he's leaning on that rock! Also it turns out that he was almost certainly gay, and the novel is told from the pov of the bloke who fell in love with him... *g*
And that's the other thing about this book - it's not just a story about Brooke's adventures in Borneo, or about Williamson for that matter, it is a romance because they're shown to be totally, devotedly in love, but at the same time it's not a pile of soppy tat with one of them actually "the woman" (*headdesk* that that's even supposedly "definable"). It's their story, and it's the story of how Brooke came to be the "White Rajah" of the country of Sarawak, and it's a bit fab. It's about two people and something extraordinary that they did, and how they felt about it and dealt with it.
From the back cover:
Based on a true story, Brooke's battle is a tale of adventure set against the background of a jungle world of extraordinary beauty and terrible savagery. Told through the eyes of the man who loves him and shares his dream, this is a tale of love and loss from a 19th century world that still speaks to us today.
And it can be found here on Amazon, or if you're in the States directly from JMS Books - and ooh, look there's an extract here too... and just... go out and buy it!
Also,
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 08:36 pm (UTC)And see, this is why I love the NPG. There are so many wonderful faces there, sometimes you just get completely struck by someone out of the blue. Next time we get the chance we should go back and spend a proper amount of time there.
Between me and my re-awakened love for Wilkie Collins and you and your first burst of passion for Sir James we're like a couple of love-struck schoolgirls, aren't we? Heeeeee.
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 08:49 pm (UTC)I've found the author's blogspot too, now - gaaah that he said he had trouble finding a publisher over here, cos it's a gay love story - honestly...
Heeee for being love-struck, innit grand! It's been quite a whilst since I last was, it's fun... And yeay for adding Sheepstor to the list for next time - hurry up, next time! (And Bodmin, too!)
And yes to the NPG, as well - it definitely deserves more time, I was thinking that as we whizzed around! Hmmn - there's always December, I guess... *g*
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 10:10 pm (UTC)Precisely what happened to me a few years ago with this -
I was totally smitten, and was chuffed to find a postcard of the same painting on sale in the shop. Needless to say, I bought one and I get it out and gaze at it every now and again.
Ah, but I haven't told you who he is! Sir Joseph Banks! Aint he lovely?
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 06:56 am (UTC)It is rather fun, innit! *g*
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 09:10 pm (UTC)Oh, the beautiful lad in the National! I'm adding the book to my Amazon list - it sounds too good to miss, thank you.
Is that the Sheeps Tor near Burrator? Or are there two? I used to know it if it's the same one, but wracking my brain I can't recall the church.
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:05 am (UTC)He is a rather beautiful lad, isn't he... *g*
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 11:51 am (UTC)Ah ha! It is the Sheepstor I know... I did all my revision one summer at Burrator - but the church is on a different lane from the one I used to get there, so maybe that's why I don't recall it.
I'm doubly fascinated by him now.
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 06:49 am (UTC)Rambling? Me? *g*
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 09:32 am (UTC)Erp for her giving the Australian Temeraire a poor review - because I've got to admit that I kind of do as well! I've liked all the others, but I thought Novak was losing the plot a bit in the Aussie one... but we may have disliked it for different reasons - I'll have to go and see what she said about it, out of interest!
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 10:44 pm (UTC)I suppose the library won't have it?
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:08 am (UTC)Oh, it's available on the Kindle too, though!
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 01:44 pm (UTC)(Sorry to cut in, but it is my area of knowledge! *g*)
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 01:46 pm (UTC)And dooo ask libraries to order it... *g*
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 06:43 pm (UTC)I just checked our library, before seeing this, and all they have is a book with the right title, by Nicholas Monsarrat, from 1961. Seems to be something totally unrelated.
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:00 pm (UTC)I wonder if it can be read on the Nook, too.
Will go and see what google says...
Found a link, where they also have a free ebook by Tom Williams (Voyage East)that also seems to have Sir James Brooke in it, or at least he is mentioned in the summary.
Have downloaded it and will see how I like the writing style.
http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=329
Here is the excerpt:
I can still remember the very first time I saw James Brooke.
It was in the Goat and Compasses, a low dive of an inn, even as sailors’ taverns go. I was there because I wanted to be alone to drink away the last of my pay and decide what I was to do for the future when the door was thrown open and in he came.
He was so much younger in those days, of course. We were all so much younger. I was scarcely a man, really, for all I thought myself cock o’ the walk. He was in his middle twenties, tall, good-looking with dark curly hair blowing untidily. I say good looking but, in truth, he was one of the handsomest men I had ever seen. He was of medium height but slim and swift in his movements, and he carried himself with the easy confidence that comes with wealth. It seemed to me he brought an energy and enthusiasm into the room with him. At first I thought it was because of the red soldier’s coat he wore over civilian trousers. (It was the coat of an officer of the East India Company and he had no business wearing it, having resigned his commission the previous year, but all this I was to learn later.) As he and his friends fairly skipped across to the bar, though, his gaze caught mine and the fire that glinted and shone in that glance was brighter than any red coat.
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:25 pm (UTC)Ah yes - aha! This is what you've found: NOTE: Voyage East is the opening scenes from the novel The White Rajah by Tom Williams. You've found the start of TWR!
I hope you do like his style... *g*
He's writing a sequel to TWR too though, which makes me happy, and I can't say any more for fear of spoilering people!
The Kindle version was at Amazon when I looked... and yes, here it is! *g*
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:33 pm (UTC)Thanks for the link to the Kindle version (not that I own one, but maybe it can be converted.
Though the place I found it at has it in all sorts of versions, even for my old Palm TX, which is still my favorite reader.
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:56 pm (UTC)JMS Books is his publisher - apparently he couldn't find one over here, and he got the distinct impression that it was largely because it featured an m/m romance, and if it'd been m/f then he'd've fared better - hmmn. That would have taken away so much of the interest of it, though!
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 09:27 am (UTC)I did come across a negative review for it, from the m/m romance writer Erastes, who didn't seem to get it at all - so it clearly depends on how you read, I guess! It looks like she wanted much more overt explanation of everything - things that I picked up in a look or an implication she doesn't seem to have seen at all, and she described it as a "dry read". I'd say it was anything but - and it may explain why I've not been keen on what I've seen of Erastes' own writing so far, we like completely different styles of writing! So - here's hoping that your tastes correspond to mine... *g*
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 01:48 pm (UTC)On the bright side, you have long plane trips coming up... and a kindle... *g*
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 01:58 pm (UTC)Hmmm, so you and I taking a fancy to that good looking fella in the portrait at Ickworth is just par for the course, is it, lol! Another somewhat fey individual if I remember.
A couple of days ago I downloaded a new app for the HTC called Google goggles - foc from the Android market. You scan books, pictures, landmarks and it searches for them and gives you the info it finds. So I tried it out on your smaller picture above (without the book title) and sure enough it came up with the right identity of the portrait and also found me the book with a range of places I could get it from including Amazon, both UK and .com. So even if you hadn't put the link, I would have found it very quickly. You can also scan things like menus in other languages and it will translate them for you. Very nifty and could be quite fun. M was quite sceptical about it until he tried it, then went off to download it to his phone so he could play too!
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Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 07:58 pm (UTC)And heeee, I'd forgotten chappie at Ickworth! He wasn't quite as inspiring as James, though I do remember trying to find out some more about him, and nearly buying a book about him too... *g* Yes actually he was quite inspiring though, wasn't he... * g*
Google Goggles (downloading now... *g*) sounds like an extra cool version of that Sound Hound thing, where you can play music to the phone and it'll recognise what it is and who it's by... How very cool!
And ha - it's all downloaded now, and it is quite cool! It recognised my Banksy's Kissing Policemen, and James Brooke on my laptop - thank you! *g*
Actually I have a question - when I download something it quite often tells me that it means I'm giving the download permission to access all sorts of things that I'm not really comfortable with it accessing - have you noticed this? What do you do, just accept? Or is there a way around it?
Also I cleverly downloaded my ProsLib disk onto my phone - only to find that I can't delete files from it as I read them, gargh! Apparently the thing to do is download the Astro File Manager app, but that seems like overkill just for this - have you come up against this sort of thing?
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Date: Tuesday, 4 October 2011 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 4 October 2011 08:17 pm (UTC)Antimony seems to have been used for all sorts of things - it was in make up and medicines, and in bullets and ball bearings and... apparently it's an element used as an alloy? Or that is an alloy? One of those basics, really... though I also gather that it wasn't the greatest idea to use it in things close to the skin, cos it was also poisonous... *g*
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Date: Tuesday, 4 October 2011 08:21 pm (UTC)I think the portrait adds a lot to the novel - knowing he was real (if somewhat less than factually represented by the story) and being able to look at him and admire!
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