Blacksmith Books

03/10/2026

27/07/2026

We’re pleased to share the news that the ever-popular Sunset Survivors is back in the shops, having just been printed for a sixth time.

Six print runs is pretty good going for a Hong Kong book. Even our printer was surprised. “What, you’re printing this one again?”

But it maybe shouldn’t be surprising because it really is a lovely book. With interviews by Lindsay Varty and portraits by Gary Jones, it illustrates the lives of Hong Kong’s traditional tradesmen and women who run their small businesses in the alleys and backstreets of the city. It tells the stories of the real old Hong Kong which is still very much present if you look for it.

https://www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/sunset-survivors-meet-the-people-keeping-hong-kongs-traditional-industries-alive/

30/06/2026

https://mailchi.mp/blacksmithbooks/murder-yunnan

Who did kill British diplomat Augustus Raymond Margary on the remote China-Burma border in 1875? It could have been agents of the Burmese king, eager to stop the British from undermining his own country’s trade with China; or local Chinese, scared that Margary was spearheading a British invasion f...

30/06/2026

https://zoologyweblog.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-murder-in-yunnan-by-david-leffman.html

David Leffman has written a cracking book on the murder of a British diplomat, Augustus Raymond Margary, in China near the border with Burma...

22/05/2026

May 22, Friday, 6:00–7:30 PM｜In English
JF Books, Washington DC, free entry

Searching for Billie: Uncovering My Mother’s Past in a Vanished China

When Ian Gill first visited Hong Kong, it took an unexpected turn when he uncovered an extraordinary journey of his mother: from a controversial adoption in Changsha and fame as a radio broadcaster in Shanghai, to a tragic romance in a Japanese internment camp and a royal decoration by Queen Elizabeth II. The backdrop for this fascinating family story is China’s turbulent century from the Anglo-Chinese wars of the 1840s to the advent of communism.

Ian Gill 在香港追尋母親過往時，意外揭開了一段橫跨長沙、上海、香港與日本集中營的家族故事。從收養爭議、上海電台主播生涯，到戰時愛情與英國王室授勳，這場講座將個人記憶置於中國近代百年劇變之中，呈現家庭史與大歷史之間的交錯。

More details:
https://jfbooks.org/pages/event-202605