A Murder in Yunnan

Who did kill British diplomat Augustus Raymond Margary on the remote China-Burma frontier 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 from Burma. Some suspected a plot going right back to the xenophobic Chinese governor, Cen Yuying, or perhaps Margary had simply run foul of bandits - and how was a tribute envoy of Burmese elephants involved? Against a background of colonial arrogance and cultural incomprehension, A Murder in Yunnan unpicks the complex tangle of official reports, rumor, suspicions and unreliable newspaper rants clouding the facts behind Margary's killing - an event which brought Britain and China to the brink of war.

David Leffman is a travel writer and photographer who first visited China in 1985. Since then he has clocked up over six years in the country, researching guidebooks for Rough Guides and DK and writing newspaper articles on Chinese history and culture. He has also authored The Mercenary Mandarin, a biography of the 19th-century British adventurer in China, William Mesny; and Paper Horses, about traditional woodblock prints of Chinese folk gods.