Beating Retreat

The decline and fall of the British Empire reaches a crucial moment on 30 June 1997. At midnight on that date Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule and the British depart from their last truly significant colonial possession. It is the end of an era. When Tim Heald's Balliol contemporary Chris Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong, Heald resolved to follow him to the Orient and see what happened. As the sun set on British rule, Heald roamed Hong Kong in the run-down to the final retreat. At one moment he is sitting alongside the Governor in the sleek black Daimler looking out at some of the six million Hong Kong citizens under his stewardship. At the next he is out on the pavement. He goes on anti-smuggling patrol with the Royal Navy and takes afternoon tea on the Governor's yacht; he hears the Last Post sounded at a passing out parade of the Royal Hong Kong Police and is present at the final night-time manoeuvres of Hong Kong's 'Dad's Army'. From sub-tropical storms to Chinese opera, he watches, he listens, he observes, he learns. In the end he paints a picture of a unique society in a unique place at a unique time. This is 'history on the wing', a first-hand account of what life is like in a city-state contemplating the end of an Empire. Heald does not pontificate, condemn, predict or analyse. Instead, he tells it as it is'.