Sinister inspiration for hoaxer's ransom note

JAMES Clavell's novel Tai-Pan has considerable basis in historical reality, being set in 1842, around the time the British settled Hong Kong at the end of the first Opium War.

"Noble House" - Dirk Struan's trading company in the novel - is based on Jardine Matheson, the trading company that operates out of Hong Kong, which was founded by Scots in 1832. Struan was loosely based upon William Jardine, one of those founders.

Clavell died in 1994 after huge success with his Asian-themed novels in the 1970s.