Favourites
The colonial historian came to Hong Kong in 1967 and was the Government Information Service's art and creative director until 1989 when he became a freelance writer and illustrator. He has since published five books including including the best-selling Hong Kong: A Rare And Photographic Record Of The 1860s and Arthur Hacker's Wan Chai.
Favourite book: Christmas Crackers: Being Ten Commonplace Selections 1970 - 1979 by John Julius Norwich is the one I like dipping into most. It's an anthology of the author's favourite verse, poems and snippets from those years.
Magazine: Private Eye which keeps me up-to-date with what's going on in Britain.
Film: Laurence Olivier's Richard III is a classic. Most modern films are a bit trivial: I have not set foot in a cinema since John Wayne died.
CD: My Fair Lady by Shelly Manne & His Friends, it's the only new CD I have ever bought so it must be my favourite.
Car: Austin Healy Sprite (not the bug-eye), a little two-seater I once owned which was fun to drive and look at. I have had only two other cars, a Fiat and a Japanese car, but they were too functional - I hate cars that never go wrong.
Place to take a guest in Hong Kong: I've only ever taken guests to the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC). It has adequate entertaining facilities and many people I know go there, so I don't have to talk to my guests the whole time if they turn out to be boring.
Way to keep fit: I don't like exercise really, but I practise the Canadian Air Force 5BX - a simple five-minute workout - when I feel fat. When you're a pensioner like me you don't rush around tennis courts.
Way to spend a Sunday: My plan is to plan absolutely nothing and then see what interesting things turn up ... it's sacrosanct! In practice, when nothing happens I get fed up and find something to do.
Holiday destination: I haven't left Hong Kong for 10 years but if I had to pick somewhere I'd go for London.
Scent: The smell of fried bacon. Although I don't actually like eating it, when I'm feeling a bit peckish the smell makes my mouth water.
Cosmetic/beauty product: I have no interest in cosmetics at all. The only cosmetic I have ever worn was camouflage cream during the Korean war.
Accessory: My Swiss Army knife. It's useful, cheap and, unlike a mobile phone, I don't get charged for carrying it.
Hairdresser: I've used the guy at Talianna Beauty Salon and Barber Shop for 30 years. I like him because he doesn't talk.
Meal: Brown Windsor Soup (a popular dish after the war which most people now consider worse than gravy browning and water), Toad in the Hole and Spotted Dick.
Restaurant: As I don't like to have conversations at a dinner table I eat at a bar when I do eat out, usually the FCC's Main Bar.
Alcoholic drink: Salty Dog, a cocktail of vodka and grapefruit juice served in a salt-rimmed glass. At the FCC I usually ask for a shot of vodka and a separate glass of grapefruit juice because, for some reason, it works out $9 cheaper. It's called 'Hacker-nomics'! Shop: Alan's Collection in Discovery Bay, where I can buy secondhand paperback books for the price of a beer. What's more, when I take them back I get $10 credit on each one.
Artist: I have many favourites but if I did visit a gallery or museum (which I haven't done for at least 10 years) I'd go to see works by Rembrandt - I never tire of his paintings.
Designer: Art nouveau painters and illustrators James Pryde and William Nicholson of the Beggarstaff Brothers, who completely changed the look of posters during the 1890s and 1900s. Without them posters would look very different.
Person: This is a silly question to ask a megalomaniac.
