The Reluctant Imperialist: An Adenturous Life in Colonial Malaya, Africa, Fiji and Hong Kong

A vivid account of an extraordinary life.- The misadventures he faced and how these amazingly shaped into a successful diplomatic career. Provides a perspective of life in the Colonies from the 1950s Insights into the duties and exotic adventures of a Special Branch agent Written in a light-hearted fashion and full with amusing anecdotes A nostalgic book that captures the fascinating insights of a British servicemans love life and family ties.-Tim writes vividly about his extraordinary life, his journey from the hard work and poverty of the coal mining towns around Nottingham to the beautiful islands of the Pacific, becoming an important figure, advising Ministers and Presidents in new Nations. All the time, though mixing with and working for the establishment, he retains the perspective of egalitarian socialism that he learned before the war: a man who left school at fourteen to go straight to work mixing with public school, University educated people raised to rule people like him and his family.-He writes knowledgeably, critically and very readably of the British Colonial Military and Security services in, for example, Hong Kong prior to the takeover by China. Throughout his love of the places and peoples he lives among is conveyed by a humorous and lively descriptive style.- Tim Hardy was born in Nottingham in 1922 into a large and poor family of miners. He left school at fourteen, went to work, joined the Labour Party, educated himself and then fought in the Parachute Regiment during WW2. After the war he joined the Colonial Police and was sent to live alone in the jungle of Malaya during the Communist insurgency there (40s - 50s). He went on to become a Special Branch officer, specialising in counter-terrorism, in Penang (Malaysia/Malaya), Tanganyika (Tanzania), Sarawak (Malaysia), Fiji and Hong Kong. He was Head of Special Branch in Sarawak during the confrontation with Indonesia. He lived through and describes the decline of Empire and the creation of new Commonwealth democracies and knew many of the important figures in this period such as Julius Nyerere. -