Paper Tigress - A life in the Hong Kong Government by Rachel Cartland

Rachel Cartland came to Hong Kong in 1972 as one of just two female expatriates in the Hong Kong Governments elite administrative grade. Before she retired in 2006, her life was shaped by the momentous events that rocked Hong Kong during those years: corruption and the police mutiny, the growth of the new towns, the currency crisis of 1983, Tiananmen Square, the change of sovereignty and the devastation of SARS. The backdrop to her story ranges from Kowloons infamous Walled City to Government House to the rural New Territories.

Paper Tigressis full of humour and incident and, at the same time, an accessible account of modern Hong Kong and the forces that shaped it.

Rachels remarkable recollection of an exciting era in Hong Kong not only brings back 40 years of shared memories, but is a fair and often amusing story of how colleagues in the Administrative Service worked together to build up this modern city and, in the process, injected core values that hopefully will stand Hong Kong in good stead for years to come.

Shelley Lee Lai-kuen, GBS, OBE, JP, former Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs

Rachel Cartland matriculated in 1969 and read PPE at Lady Margaret Hall.