Publications
Publications, blogs and reviews
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The Alcock Album: Scenes of China Consular Life, 1843-1853 (City University of Hong Kong Press, 2024)
Following the ending of the First Opium War and the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, Britain opened five treaty ports on the Chinese mainland where foreigners were allowed for the first time to live and work normally under the eyes of their state’s consul. In establishing this presence, consular staff and their families faced numerous challenges, including unsuitable accommodation, illness, hostile local authorities, attacks from militias and pirates, while at the same time adjusting to an unfamiliar language and culture. Henrietta Alcock (1812–1853), the first wife of the British Consul, Rutherford Alcock, was little-known until an album of sketches and watercolours depicting her life in China came to light. Introducing this richly illustrated volume, Andrew’s talk will show how Henrietta’s life provides a unique picture of the treaty port world in its very earliest days and of her as an amateur artist, the wife of a consul and, most importantly, a woman in empire.
“Henrietta Alcock’s story, richly documented in Andrew Hillier’s expert commentary, provides a new way for us to understand this early history of the treaty ports”- Robert Bickers, Foreword
“Hillier is an affecting writer, and the Alcock album provides a very human and well-researched portrait of British imperial life in China in the mid-point of the 19th Century” – Asian Review of Books
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mla7XMpK8NI&t=1229s
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​My Dearest Martha: The Life and Letters of Eliza Hillier – Hong Kong, Shanghai, England, Siam (Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press), publication date 14th July 2021
Book Depository/Amazon UK/Waterstones
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For a glimpse of My Dearest Martha, click here:
https://www.facebook.com/96844704488/posts/10159622314964489
https://twitter.com/CityU_Press/status/1452468133529153538?s=20
​Ian Ruxton (ed.), with an Introduction by Andrew Hillier, The Correspondence of Sir Ernest Satow, British Envoy in China (1900-1906), vol.1 and vols. 2-4 (Independent through Amazon, 2021)
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Mediating Empire: An English Family in China. 1817-1927 (Folkestone: Renaissance Books, 2020),
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To order, Mediating Empire, go to:
https://store.nbninternational.com/checkout?isbn1=9781912961023.
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What the critics have said:
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Mediating Empire is a superb exploration into successive generations of the British imperial world in China. Hillier demonstrates how family could be much more than the sum of its parts, providing personnel for the British presence, establishing community life, and building networks of trust that ran across institutional and sometimes racial divides Mark Baker, Family and Community History, 23 (2020) 229-231
Using family papers which are carefully contextualised in expertly chosen and judged official sources and related studies, [Hillier] illuminates many characteristics of the relationship between Britain and China. The work covers aspects of cross-cultural social history, administrative relationships, key financial developments, leisure and much else. He also reveals the extent to which the wives of the key male players were themselves strong and active figures in the circumstances in which they found themselves John Mackenzie, Emeritus Professor of Imperial History, Lancaster.
Written in a light, yet engagingly informative style, the book is an examination of the relationship between family and empire …Hillier has gone beyond the significant achievements of the cast-members of his book, by incorporating an analysis of the extent to which family was ‘a key enabler of Britain’s imperial presence in China’ … at no stage does this … appear forced or contrived. The players’ interaction with and dependence on each other are clear to see. This is a book that was waiting to be written.
Robert Nield, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong, 60 (2020), pp. 261-3.
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Bridging Cultures: The Forging of the China Consular Mind, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47 (2019), pp. 742-772.
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With Simon Landy ‘At Home in Siam: Being a Consular Wife’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, For the full article, see Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong, 60 (2020), pp. 160-185.
Andrew Hillier and Christopher Munn, 'China’s Able Advocate: The Controversial Career of William Venn Drummond', Journal of Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong, 61 (2021) pp. 122-149
file:///C:/Users/Andrew%20Hillier/Documents/drummond/Drummond%20article/Chinas%20Able%20Advocate%20.._.pdf
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'Benign Neglect?' The Foreign Office, Family and the China Consular
Service, 1843–1900, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong 62 (2022),pp. 159-185.
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Blogs etc from elsewhere ​
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Clapham Connections: The Hanbury Brothers and the Wider British World, https://claphamsociety.com/articles/40-hanbury-brothers/
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A Japanese Amah http://ayahsandamahs.com/2021/06/18/a-japanese-amah/
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The Five Faces of Walter Medhurst D.D.
https://visualisingchina.net/blog/2020/11/12/the-five-faces-of-dr-walter-medhurst-d-d/
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After the Siege https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/specialcollections/after-the-siege/
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AMOT Regimental Museums Project: AMOT Annual Review, 2020-20121, p.54
https://flickread.com/edition/html/614add2da9dc5#2
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‘A Miniature World’: Photographs and Memories of Internment in China
http://visualisingchina.net/blog/2020/06/29/internment-in-china/
Family and Memory in Old Hong Kong
Music-making in the Customs Service
https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/specialcollections/music-making-in-the-customs-service/
Interview: Barrister’s Best: https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/barrister's-best-andrew-hillier-qc
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http://visualisingchina.net/blog/2020/04/22/a-banker-and-his-amanuensis/
welovebse.com/2020/01/the-scholar-and-the-mandarins/
Shanghailanders and the Quest for Home https://colonialfamilies.wordpress.com/
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The Kodak comes to Peking http://visualisingchina.net/blog/?s=kodak+to+peking
With a Camera in Yunnan: the Ethnographic Expeditions of Frederic W. Carey http://visualisingchina.net/blog/?s=carey
Dear Mother, Dear Father’: Legation Letters Home https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/specialcollections/legation-letters-home/
https://chinesemoneymatters.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/charles-batten-hillier-1820-1856/
The Banker’s Bullet-Ridden Buick http://visualisingchina.net/blog/?s=bullet-ridden
Weihaiwei and the 1st Chinese Regiment – 2. Peking and After http://visualisingchina.net/blog/?s=1st+Chinese
https://www.welovebse.com/2020/01/the-scholar-and-the-mandarins/
Imperial Boredom; Monotony and the British Empire https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/2332
I have taken part in an HSBC film about Guy Hillier’s career https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chvh7hLJCUg
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