"Alain's prose is spiced with vignettes of the missionary Fathers and the idiosyncrasies of missionary life. He illuminates their personalities with amusing anecdotes and quotations from letters written home to France, while the broader history of Asia un

"It is a masterpiece by both a scholar and an artist. Prof. Le Pichon has spared no effort in researching the history of B�thanie and the people working there. His artistic way of presenting the subject is admirable." - Fr Louis Ha, Archivist, Catholic Di

"What a wonderful journey with my confr�res in the early days of Hong Kong! Many thanks to Alain Le Pichon for his time-consuming historical research." - Fr Emile Louis Tisserand, Missions �trang�res de Paris in Hong Kong

Alain Le Pichon was born and educated in France. After graduating from the Ecole Normale Sup�rieure at St Cloud, he went on to teach at Eton. He then joined an English merchant-bank in the City and later on Wall Street. He now lives in Hong Kong and Paris and teaches British History at the Sorbonne. He has written extensively on British traders in the East. His recent China Trade and Empire was published by Oxford University Press for the British Academy. It is the first edition of letters written during the period 1825-1843 by the founders of Jardine, Matheson & Co. This latest work - B�thanie and Nazareth French Secrets from a British Colony - recalls the presence and activities of the French missionaries in Hong Kong. It adds a colourful chapter in the history of foreigners' contributions to the development of Hong Kong.