Why an obscure memoir by a former Australian diplomat and veteran of Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV is creating a flutter
Roger Uren, who has worked in Beijing, Mumbai and Hong Kong, is in the news after the revelation of a raid by intelligence officials at his Canberra home, which he shared with his Chinese socialite wife
A surprise awaited Gillian Bickley of Hong Kong’s Proverse Publishing when she checked the company’s website last Monday.
The page for an obscure 2014 memoir by Roger Uren, titled To Eastern Lands – a collection of “reflections in prose, photographs and verse of a journey from Melbourne to Bombay, Beijing and other exotic destinations” – was attracting hundreds of hits.
Formerly a high-ranking intelligence officer with the Australian foreign service, Uren’s diplomatic postings had included Beijing and Washington before he joined Hong Kong’s Phoenix Satellite Television in 2001.
The raid, prompted by allegations Yan was a Chinese spy, came as she was arrested by the FBI in New York for bribing a United Nations official, a crime for which she was jailed last year.
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Bickley hastily began preparing an e-book version of the memoir, which is now available on Amazon.