The Chinese Confessions of Charles Welsh Mason

<p>In this old China tale like no other Englishman Charles Mason tells of his doomed attempt to overthrow the Qing dynasty.</p><p><br></p><p>Lawrence of Arabia famously wrote that All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act upon their dreams. Such a man was young Charles Mason who in the late 1880s secured a job with China's British-run Imperial Maritime Customs Service at a river port. Here the glamor and adventure of exotic China met the reality of tedious paperwork alcoholism petty squabbles and sordid sexual encounters. It was a test of character and one which Mason would fail. From the boredom and his connections with a secret society a fantasy emerged of setting himself up as the King of China. In 1891 he secured men and arms to launch his revolt. </p><p>Mason was a much better writer than he was a revolutionary and in mesmerising melodramatic prose of sometimes borderline sanity he recounts the failed insurrection from inspiration to his dramatic trial and the aftermath. </p><p><em>The Chinese Confessions</em> was originally published in 1924. In this reissue vital background and biographical information is given in an introduction by David Leffman a travel writer and the author of <em>The Mercenary Mandarin</em> a biography of the British adventurer William Mesny.</p>