Harry Parkes was at the heart of Britain’s relations with the Far East from fourteen, to his death at fifty-seven. In his day, he was seen as both a hero and a monster and is still bitterly resented in China for his part in the country’s humiliations at Western hands, but largely esteemed in Japan for helping it to industrialise.

This new study examines the history of the relations between the British and Japanese monarchies over the past 150 years. Complemented by a significant plate section, with many rarely seen historical photographs and illustrations, together with supporting chronologies, this volume will become a benchmark reference on the subject.

South Korea 1957. Sukey, a promising graduate, falls in love with Kwon, who confesses that he has been a North Korean spy. It is four years since the Korean War ended in a cease-fire. Fighting is suspended. Hostility and enmity towards the North the social norm. Anti-spy campaigns, street and hotel searches, arrests of any suspect are the norm.

This volume comprises some fifty essays on different themes and personalities, grouped thematically: portraits of key figures such as Stamford Raffles and Lord Lytton; history of Japanese trade and investment in the UK, such as NSK and Mitsubishi Electric; scholars such as Basil Hall Chamberlain; international Japanese banker Ogata Shijuro.