Author Description

Shanghai in the wake of World War I was one of the world's most dynamic, brutal and exciting cities - a panorama of nightclubs, opium dens, gambling and murder. Threatened from within by communist workers and from without by Chinese warlords and Japanese troops, and governed by an ever more desperate British-dominated administration, Shanghai was both mesmerising and terrible. Into this maelstrom stepped a tough and resourceful ex-veteran Englishman to join the police. It is his story, told in part through his rediscovered photograph albums and letters, that Robert Bickers has uncovered in this book.