Copy

This Sunday is VJ Day, and it's the 75th anniversary of Hong Kong's liberation from three years and eight months of wartime occupation. To mark the event, we are releasing an updated edition of a classic account of the Battle of Hong Kong. We have other book news too. Please read on.

Book cover image: Hong Kong Volunteers in Battle
New edition

Hong Kong Volunteers in Battle: December 1941

On the same day as the assault on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army attacked Hong Kong. Among the colony’s garrison were regiments from Britain, Canada and India as well as men from the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, better known as ‘The Volunteers’.

When the battle began on 8 December 1941, the HKVDC deployed a fighting strength of 1,900 officers and men. Over the next 17 days, until the surrender on Christmas Day, the men of ‘The Volunteers’ saw action all over Hong Kong. This is the story of their battle.

Read more...

If you would like to learn more about Hong Kong's wartime experience, you might like to read Tin Hats and Rice, the diary of Barbara Anslow, a civilian prisoner-of-war in Stanley internment camp; or It Won't Be Long Now, the journal of Graham Heywood, who was interned in the Sham Shui Po camp for combatants.

King Hui: The Man Who Owned All the Opium in Hong Kong tells a very different true story: that of a playboy who benefited from the occupation, at least for a short while. Then, in fiction, we have The Slightest Chance: a tale of wartime lovers who are not what they seem.

Or cross the Pearl River on a slow ferry and have a look at Paul French's latest title...
Book cover image: Strangers on the Praia
New book

Strangers on the Praia: A Tale of Refugees and Resistance in Wartime Macao

Based on true stories and new research, Paul French weaves together the stories of those Jewish refugees who moved on from wartime Shanghai to seek a possible route to freedom via the Portuguese colony of Macao – “the Casablanca of the Orient”.

The delicately balanced neutral enclave became their wartime home, amid Nazi and Japanese spies, escaped Allied prisoners from Hong Kong, and displaced Chinese.

Strangers on the Praia relates the story of one young woman’s struggle for freedom that would ultimately prove an act of brave resistance.

Read more...

Book cover image: Trading Places
Recently published

Trading Places: A photographic journey through China’s former Treaty Ports

China’s treaty port era extended from the 1840s to 1943, during which time foreigners had a significant presence. This book contains more than 700 photographs of many buildings from this period, most of them commissioned by foreign interests. Many argue that they should never have been built, let alone still be standing. But this book is not concerned with the rights and wrongs of how these buildings came to be. It simply celebrates their existence. A significant number are innately beautiful and all of them embody a history that has clear and present links to our own time and thus remain relevant.

This book was driven by the author’s interest in the history of China’s treaty port era, in which several generations of his family played a part. It is a tribute to the buildings that remain as a reminder of the past, and a guide to where to find them.

See more...

Book cover image: The Rise and Fall of the Hang Seng Index
Recently published

The Rise and Fall of the Hang Seng Index

“Every adult human being is an investment expert. Life is an investment exercise and you are your own best investment adviser.”

Jake van der Kamp is a resident of Hong Kong for more than 40 years. He has enjoyed a varied career, working first as an Asian investment analyst and then as a financial columnist for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

In this book he offers a “how to” manual on investment. He argues that you are already your own best adviser on when and what investments to make – and you should rely on investment professionals only for advice on how and where to do so.

Read more...

Book cover image: Hong Kong Sweet and Sour
Recently republished

Hong Kong Sweet and Sour

French artist Zabo arrived in Hong Kong in 1967, and condensed his year-long stay into a book of cartoons which has come to be known as an emblem of the era.

Hong Kong’s street scenes, people and fashions are humorously illustrated with sharp satire, covering popular pastimes, social etiquette, age-old traditions and the customs of local people as well as foreign residents.

Even half a century later, Zabo’s portrayal of Hong Kong still rings true, and his take on local life will resonate with everyone who lived through the Swinging Sixties – or wishes they had.

See more...

This newsletter is sent only when we have new books to show. If you like it, please help us out and share it with your book-loving friends. If not, please click the unsubscribe link below. To be kept up to date with book news, giveaways, excerpts and events, please click the social links. Thanks for reading!

Pete Spurrier, Publisher
Facebook Facebook
Twitter Twitter
Instagram Instagram
Our website Our website
Copyright © 2020 Blacksmith Books, all rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Unit 26, 19/F, Block B, Wah Lok Industrial Centre, 37-41 Shan Mei Street, Fo Tan, Hong Kong

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp