This is a sprawling and spellbinding account of Britain's Asian campaigns during World War II. Drawing on a rich trove of diaries, archives and personal accounts, the authors successfully evoke the ambience and human tragedies of an empire at ebb tide.
We meet gin-swilling pukka sahibs and strutting Colonel Blimps, swagger and swizzle sticks at the ready, ranting on to their dachshunds about perfidious "Japs" and ungrateful natives, oblivious to being yesterday's men.
There are humorous tales about officers squeezing in a round of golf while retreating, and a future viceroy of India courting a younger woman with bananas. The stories of coolies, comfort women, prisoners of war, guerrillas and refugees are also retold in vivid detail.