27 October 2009
Professor Robert Bickers gave a talk at this year's Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. In Journey to Shanghai he presented his exploration of the history of the city and the life and work in it of a British man, Maurice Tinkler, who served as a member of the Shanghai Municipal Police, and who formed the subject of his last book, Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai. The event was programmed by Dr Alice Roberts, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, who was a guest-director at the Festival. The talk, which explored Tinkler's life through photographs and drawings, many of them provided by members of the public whose families formerly had links with China, was reviewed by Kapka Kassabova, one of the Festival writers in residence.