‘Cecil Clementi was one of the most extraordinary figures of empire – scholarly, political, and bureaucratic by turns, devoted to Chinese culture and yet fiercely opposed to that country’s search for nationhood. Drawing on rich sources and in compelling, lucid prose, Graham Hutchings tells the captivating story not just of a man, but of the rise and fall of imperial Britain.’
— Rana Mitter, S. T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations, Kennedy School, Harvard University

‘This is a beautifully written critical biography of Governor Cecil Clementi and a highly valuable addition to scholarship on how Hong Kong was governed at the heyday of the British Empire. Anyone interested in how it fitted into Britain’s East Asian empire and the dynamics between colonial Hong Kong and China’s Guangdong province will also find it illuminating.’
— Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute and author of A Modern History of Hong Kong