London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Royal Ancestors – an unsolicited review

Royal Ancestors cover image

I recently received an email from a friend who was given a copy of Royal Ancestors and Ancient Remedies for Christmas last year:

Royal Ancestors and Ancient Remedies - coverJust finished reading your Korean book, which I enjoyed a lot. I confess I was struck by a similarity between the book and the Jongmyo ancestral rituals, in that I thought it might be a bit boring but in fact it wasn’t in the slightest. You got into your stride as the book progressed. Having been at least as far a China myself, and having several Korean colleagues, I felt some connection with the subject matter. The part I enjoyed most was about Sancheong County, which sounds beautiful and perhaps realler than some of the more modern parts of Korean life. The photos from there are also really nice. (Next time a simple map would also help.) Can it be that the air is cleaner than in China? So well done, it was worth the work. Maybe you’ll get Louise out there one of these days.

It’s nice to get a bit of positive feedback, and I totally agree with the need for a map or two. The book is now hard to get hold of, but you can read its contents on LKL here – it’s the diary of my 2010 Korea trip.

I’m extremely behind on writing up my 2011 diary, though that will get done eventually. But my 2012 one is almost complete. True gluttons for punishment can also check out the 2009, 2008 and 2007 journals, though the earlier couple of years are a bit insubstantial.

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