My favourite story, hands-down. This one came about after watching the South Korean series Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung (which remains incomplete on my Netflix watch-list because it ended up focusing on romance, which is just not for me, but please do check out the first 12 episodes - it's entertaining TV!). Combining my favourite things - history, politics, imaginary worlds and one-liners - with some complex ideas about religion and colonialism has been quite the challenge, and what you see here is very much a work in progress. It's also an exercise in finding a distinct narrative voice, and it marks a return to third-person. Here are the first three chapters - there are more, but they're a mess. And feel free to skip over the disaster that is Chapter 1. This is what early drafts look like, folks, and I make no apologies for the quality.
Content warning: implied sexual abuse
Disclaimer: only one person in in this story is based on someone I know (the person I married). Any other resemblance to a person living or dead is purely coincidental. I have, however, been to more than one history conference where the primary topic of conversation was the catering...