Jardines – Amitava Ghosh & The Economist

Last night I started reading Amitava Ghosh’s latest novel in the Ibis trilogy – Flood of Fire. The novel, continuing from the previous one, has part of the storyline based in Canton in China during the Opium trading era.

Like many good novels, the storyline weaves in real life facts and characters. One of them being William Jardine, who first appeared in the 2nd novel the river of smoke, and is again present in the background (so far) in flood of fires:

Flood of Fire - William Jardine
Flood of Fire – William Jardine reference

 

Then, today I was catching up with the latest issue of The Economist, and came across this:

Economist article on Jardine Matheson investing in China
Economist article on Jardine Matheson investing in China

 

Interesting coincidence of timing.