Having been the subject of scholarly works in the 1980s and 1990s, the highlights of Sino-British relations during the Cold War are relatively known to readers. Britain's decision to keep the door open to Maoist China was meant to facilitate keeping Hong Kong as a colony, while propensity for trade led the former imperial power to defy a NATO economic embargo and engage in trading with the PRC. However, no book has covered the building process of Anglo-Chinese relations from early recognition in 1950 to exchange of ambassadors in 1972.

The main aim of the present book is to present a full account of the story. The main argument is that – notwithstanding the admittedly “not vital” character of their relationship (p. 3) – both Chinese and British leaders continuously acknowledged that it was somehow special. This conviction sustained them alongside the slow and cumbersome path which led to full diplomatic relations. Chapters one and two deal with the years from 1950 until 1964, conveying to the reader the sense of “fairly normal badness” of Anglo-Chinese relations (p. 62), quite an achievement considered those tense times. The exchange of chargés d'affaires in 1954 was a success, though also a failure, as it was not possible for the British to overcome the “one-China” stalemate. However, as shown in chapters three and four, British and Chinese leaders never lost faith in the future potential of the relationship, even in the difficult times of the radicalization of Maoism. The chapters offer an unprecedented reconstruction of the burning of the British embassy by the Red Guards in August 1967. While neither Mao Zedong nor Zhou Enlai were ever in favour of diplomatic disruption and were vigilant, they failed to avert the incident! The section does not analyse the concurrent 1967 Hong Kong riots in depth. Rather, it delves into the consequent political retaliations. Thus, previously unpublished materials shed light on the case of British journalist Anthony Grey, who was freed from house arrest once several pro-PRC journalists were liberated. Eventually, chapters five and six show how the lowest point reached in 1967 actually represented a new start for the making of Anglo-Chinese relations, with the Chinese leaders offering to rebuild the embassy at their expense. This section narrates the concluding phase of the negotiations from 1968 to 1972, illustrating how the UK's newly emerging China policy was well integrated with East and Southeast Asian policy, and British political leaders were able to establish fruitful personal relations with Chinese counterparts.

Overall, the analysis is constantly balanced with the study of the evolution of the US-UK alliance. By delving into some controversial aspects – the British stance in favour of a pro-China decision at UN; the British incursions in aircraft sales to China – the book guides the reader to a fuller grasping of Britain's agency in the “special relationship.”

The book's excellence relies upon a sophisticated use of documents from British, American and Chinese archives and collections. Documents are wisely balanced with secondary literature and biographical accounts. From the methodological point of view, the history of “the everyday” constitutes a welcome innovation. While mostly deployed by scholars to research the routine of ordinary people, here the concept is declined to accommodate the study of specific categories of people: diplomatic personnel, journalists, administrators. The documents are carefully studied to extract ritual and symbolic aspects, thus offering the reader a powerful insight into propaganda and day-to-day diplomatic work on the field.

The book is primarily directed to a specialist readership and can be used as BA and post-graduate teaching material in Chinese studies and in modern history. However, thanks to its clear-cut structure and selective – though well guided – choice of historical episodes, the book also appeals to the non-specialized reader.

Placing itself at the crossroads of two main research fields – international history and political history of modern China – the book completes previous accounts on British policy in East and Southeast Asia after the end of British imperial control in the area. As to Chinese studies, the book points to the emergence of an assertive foreign policy already by mid 1950s, thus placing China in a more independent position from Soviet influence a few years earlier than the Sino-Soviet split. Moreover, the book reinforces the thesis that regards the Cultural Revolution as an eminently domestic power struggle with little effect on foreign relations.

If one critique can be raised about this magisterial work, it is the limited mention of Europe. British actions are analysed in terms of continuation or rupture with imperial times, in relation with the “special relationship.” The interaction between the UK and European states is almost non-existent in the narrative, although Cold War literature has increasingly shown the importance of certain intra-European political and economic dynamics in the shaping of a more complex attitude of Western countries towards new China.