Hi all, May I recommend an excellent read that is centred around the opium wars which involved the East India Company, England and China. Author is Amitav Ghosh. The work is known as The Iris Trilogy. The books are: Sea of Poppies River of Smoke Flood of Fire Someone wrote this about the 'Flood of Fire'. I couldn't put it better. "Flood of Fire is a thrillingly realised and richly populated novel, imbued with a wealth of historical detail and suffused with the magic of the place. It is a beautiful novel in it's own right , and a compelling conclusion to an epic and sweeping story - it is nothing short of a masterpiece." I can say the same for the other two books Enjoy. Len Buchanan