The Last Governor

In 1992, Chris Patten arrived in Hong Kong as the colony’s final British governor, charged with administering its last five years before the transfer of sovereignty to China. Jonathan Dimbleby was given unusually close access to Patten and follows the political battles surrounding electoral reform, social policy and the attempt to protect established civil liberties as the deadline of 1 July 1997 approached.

The book sets Patten’s governorship within the strained relationship between London and Beijing after the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Chinese officials regarded his democratic reforms with suspicion, while many Hong Kong residents faced uncertainty over citizenship, emigration and the future of their institutions. Dimbleby turns the handover into a study of diplomacy and decolonisation as well as a portrait of the man responsible for Britain’s final administration of Hong Kong.