"Macao and the British 1637-1842 Prelude to Hong Kong (1988), published originally in 1964 as Prelude to Hong Kong, was the first work on Macau by Austin Coates (1922-1997). It is the first comprehensive survey ever to be written on the English presence,

"Macao history at its most readable. It . . . should be immediately snapped up by anyone who has been unlucky enough to have missed it up to now." --South China Morning Post

"This study vividly introduces the general reader to historic Macau, once 'the outpost of all Europe in China' and foothold to East India Company officials and private merchants trading in Canton." --Clive Willis, Emeritus Professor of Portuguese Studies,

Austin Coates (1922-97), a former senior British civil servant in Hong Kong, Malaya, and Sarawak, left government service at age forty to pursue a professional writing career. Widely regarded as the most distinguished English-language author in Hong Kong, Coates remained a long-time Hong Kong resident, later dividing his time between Hong Kong and Portugal, where he died. Macao and the British is a companion to his other two books on Macao, A Macao Narrative and the historical novel City of Broken Promises. Both these books and his other novel, The Road, are also available in the Echoes series from Hong Kong University Press.