Me, Mao & Milly

Sir Alan Donald worked as a diplomat in China three times– in the 1950s, 60s and 80s. Each time there was a similar pattern, starting with the hopes of greater openness and freedom and ending with severe crackdowns. These were the disaster of the Great Leap Forward, the madness of the Cultural Revolution and in the 1980s, when he was there as Ambassador, the Tiananmen Square massacre. He was also closely involved with the negotiations to hand back the British Colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997. He witnessed it all and recounts his experiences in this memoir.