"We must religiously observe our engagements with China, but I fear that Hong Kong is a sorry possession and Chusan is a magnificent is land admirably placed for our purposes."

So wrote the home secretary Sir James Graham to the prime minister Sir Robert Peel, as British diplomats prepared to return the island of Chusan to Chinese rule during the winter of 1845. For years, this now little-known island off the coast of Zhejiang province had been home to thousands of men, women and children of all classes and backgrounds, of all races and religions, from across the British Empire and beyond. Before the Union Jack ever flew over Hong Kong, it had been raised on Chusan.

From a wealth of primary archives, Liam D'Arcy-Brown pieces together the forgotten story of how the British wrested Chusan from the Qing dynasty, only to hand it back for the sake of Queen Victoria's honour and Britain's national prestige. At a time when the Chinese Communist Party is inspiring a new brand of patriotism by revisiting the shame inflicted during the Opium Wars, here is a book that puts Britain's incursions into nineteenth-century China in a fascinating and revealing new light.

Liam D’Arcy-Brown graduated with a first-class degree in Mandarin from Oxford University and went on to study Ancient Chinese History in Shanghai. After working as a tour manager in China and for the BBC in London, he turned to travel writing. His first book, "Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior" (John Murray, 2003), took him on an 11,000-mile journey to reconcile the four most far-flung points of the People’s Republic. On its publication, "Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior" became the Daily Express “Book of the Week”, and was described in The Times as “a moving and chilling book. Let us hope there are many more to come”. D’Arcy-Brown’s second book, "The Emperor’s River" (Eye Books, 2010), saw him become the first Westerner in modern times to trace the 1,115-mile Grand Canal of China from Hangzhou northward to Beijing, uncovering this marvel of engineering and the people who live upon it and along its banks. Liam lives in the English midlands with his wife, the legal historian Professor Rebecca Probert.