Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empire - Couverture souple

First published in 1988, Hong Kong is a portrait of the British Empire's last, most anachronistic outpost, as the countdown to the handover gathers momentum. Written with her trademark elegance and panache, Morris depicts a city tragically suspended between a colonial past and the uncertainties of China's future. 'It is difficult to think of anyone who could recount this tale with such authority, elegance and sensitivity as Jan Morris ... Here, she portrays what has always been Britain's most adjective-defying colony ... Morris so clearly likes the place, but she is not sentimental, nor is she blind to Hong Kong's flaws; she is aware of rootlessness in the teeming energy.' TLS 'The book captures the contradictions and mad terror of Hong Kong better than could a novel - it's a dramatic documentary ... ' Evening Standard 'The definitive study.' Washington Post

Jan Morris was born in 1926 to a Welsh father and an English mother, and when she is not travelling she lives with her partner in Wales, between the mountains and the sea. Her books include Coronation Everest, Venice, The Pax Britannica Trilogy (Heaven's Command, Pax Britannica, and Farewell the Trumpets), Conundrum, and Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere. She is also the author of six books about cities and countries, two autobiographical books, and several volumes of collected travel essays. A Writer's World, a collection of her travel writing and reportage from over five decades, was published in 2003. Hav, her novel, was published in a new and expanded form in 2006.