Chris Patten's report on policing in Northern Ireland and his appointment to Romano Prodi's new European Commission show he still has strong political ambitions: this book confirms him as a true liberal who continues to offer a lot to politics. When the Union Jack came down in Hong Kong two years ago, it may not have marked the end of the Governor's political career but, according to Chris Patten, it marked the end of Britain's days as an imperial and colonial power. In this elegant, witty but bruising account of his term of office, Patten honestly describes how Britain handed a free Chinese city back to a totalitarian state, how the "last British colony" was "surrendered to the last Communist tyranny", transferred from one colonial power to another. Patten is honest, too, in airing his feelings about those he encountered and about his past chequered relationship with Margaret Thatcher, truthful about the Chinese leadership, witty about Garret FitzGerald, and direct in his assessment of the Rupert Murdoch, who put his own commercial interests before freedom of expression. A postscript in the new paperback edition assessing the Asian economic crises makes this serious reading for anyone who wants to understand why the Asian Tiger has been reduced from a roar to a purr.