The Spanish author of this memoir recognizes early on just how much his subject, the British writer and historian Austin Coates (1922-97), like Coates' Vietnamese companion, "came from south-east Asia." And yet Coates was, in certain ways, a quintessential Englishman. It is a paradox that the letters and recollections delicately explore.
Coates' father was the composer Eric Coates, who wrote the theme music for "The Dam Busters" among many other well-known pieces. Austin was educated in England and in Paris, and served in the Royal Air Force intelligence in India in World War II. Afterward he worked with the colonial administration in Hong Kong, and eventually settled there, spending part of the year in Europe.
Having worked as a magistrate in the British colony, Coates wrote up his experiences in an engaging volume called "Myself a Mandarin: Memoirs of a Special Magistrate" (1968). He also lectured on the history of Hong Kong and Macau, turning his researches into books, including a novel, "City of Broken Promises (1967)," which then became a successful musical, thus reclaiming his father's territory.