History is when the oak tree
Dropped its acorns
Two hundred years before the forest
(… from Les présents fugitifs, 2012)
My Books on History
Books Available Online


China Trade and Empire, 1827-1843, Oxford, Oxford University Press, for the British Academy series “Records of Social and Economic History”, 2006, (First edition of the correspondence of Jardine and Matheson, with introduction, notes and critical apparatus ; 626 pages).

Available on AMAZON:

Aux origines de Hong Kong, Aspects de la civilisation commerciale à Canton, 1827-1839, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1998. Summary of Doctoral Thesis (602 pages).


Béthanie and Nazareth, French Secrets from a British Colony, Hong Kong, HKAPA Press/ Hong Kong University Press, 2006, (History of the presence and work of the French Foreign Mission in Hong Kong, and how they came to build two “heritage” buildings in Pokfulam; 184 pages).
4bis- Béthanie et Nazareth, Les Pères des Missions Etrangères de Paris à Hong Kong, (French version of No 4 above). Same publisher.
4ter- Béthanie and Nazareth, French Secrets from a French Colony, (Putonghua version of the same. Same publisher).

English Edition

French Edition

Chinese Edition
Available on AMAZON:

Hong Kong, Présences françaises, du XIX siècle à nos jours, Hong Kong, Bonham Media Ltd, 2012. (History of the French in Hong Kong since the 1840s).
Hong Kong, French Connections (English language version of the same book - same year, same editor)


I was editor of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for Volumes 52 and 53.
Other Books
La porte des anges, translation of the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, The Gate of Angels, Paris, Stock, 1992. (204 pages).