Books by Maurice Collis

The book commences in India at the time of Britain's domination of the World Indigo market in the late 1800s. A series of incidents during that period have repercussions throughout the years that follow.

"e;This is an unpretentious book, but it brings out with unusual clearness the dilemma that faces every official in an empire like our own."e; George OrwellTrials in Burma recounts Maurice Collis' experiences as a district magistrate in Rangoon in the late 1920s. The book recounts his gradual realisation that far from administering an impartial system of justice, he is expected to protect British interests. In a cool dispassionate style, Collis describes how, by choosing integrity over career, he eventually loses his job."e;A brilliant, direct and extraordinarily vivid account of this troubled period...a masterly survey of the Burmese scene."e; Daily Mail

Foremost among the biographies that Maurice Collis wrote during his wide-ranging literary career is Siamese White - an account of the career of Samuel White of Bath who, during the reign of James II, was appointed by the King of Siam as a mandarin of that country.

This account of the struggle between the British and Chinese in the Opium War in Canton in the 1830s has a vividness that comes from 20 years of experience in the Far East as a civil servant. 'The story of the Opium War does not lend itself to natural composition;