Richard Garrett came to Hong Kong in 1973 as a civil engineer. His work on planning the city’s infrastructure provided him with the opportunity to get to know the territory very well. Since retirement he writes about the history of its colonial era. He has a long association with the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong and has lived on the Peak for over 40 years. His previous books include Irish Gunmakers; The Defences of Macau: Forts, Ships and Weapons over 450 Years; and The Lone Flag: Memoir of the British Consul in Macao during World War II (joint editor).

“As a civil engineer, historian, Peak resident for decades, and someone who knows the Peak area inside out, no one is better qualifed than Richard Garrett to write about it. The author has traced the Peak District’s development over the past 150 years from its beginnings as a signal station and failed military sanatorium in and above the area of the present upper Peak Tram station. He has chronicled the whole through a close and painstaking examination of its building sites, and of the buildings old and new which have occupied them, thereby revealing its full extent, something not apparent to the casual visitor who travels there only by the funicular railway. The result is a well-illustrated account containing a wealth of carefully researched and accurate facts that cannot fail but interest those who would like to know more about this fascinating and historic part of Hong Kong.” — Dr James Hayes, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong