"A ripping tale ... a thriller-diller of a book." -- The Spectator

"An exciting narrative of the one-legged Chan Chak's hair-raising escape to the Chinese mainland aboard a Royal Navy motor torpedo boat." -- Asian Affairs

"Mr Luard describes the escape as a rare example of British and Chinese working together ... His story is well told, and well worth telling." -- The London Magazine

"Compelling account ... one of the greatest escapes of the Second World War." -- Sunday Telegraph

"Thanks to Luard, this remarkable story now has the much wider audience it deserves." -- Navy News

Tim Luard graduated in Chinese from Edinburgh University in 1973 and spent the next seven years in Hong Kong, where he wrote for local and international media. He returned to Britain to join BBC Radio News and was Beijing Correspondent for the World Service in the late 1980s, travelling widely in China and covering the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He spent a further fifteen years with the BBC as a presenter, editor and East Asia specialist. In 1997 he made an acclaimed six-part radio series on the history of Hong Kong to mark the colony's handover to China. He also wrote an accompanying book, Hong Kong Imperial Orphan.