Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was among the guests at the Foreign Correspondents' Club last night for the launch of veteran journalist Kevin Sinclair's autobiography - Tell Me a Story: Forty Years of Newspapering in Hong Kong and China.
Other high-profile figures among the 100 or more friends and colleagues at the event included former chief secretary Sir David Akers-Jones, former police commissioner Dick Lee Ming-kwai and former home affairs chief Shelley Lee Lai-kuen.
Many of them formed a queue for a chance to share a moment with one of the most respected journalists in Hong Kong.
SCMP Group chairman Kuok Khoon Ean spoke highly of Sinclair's accomplishments: 'His work has been inspirational to all of us.'
The book, which Sinclair, 65, penned while battling cancer, was 'a unique history of Hong Kong', the deputy editor of the South China Morning Post, Cliff Buddle, said. He said the book, by turns deeply moving, inspirational and humorous, recorded the many changes witnessed by Sinclair in the city during a career spanning four decades.
Shelley Lee said Sinclair's fairness and sharp wit had impressed her during her career as a civil servant. She said she would always remember the days when she had to 'get up in the morning and get an e-mail from Kevin, who asked questions that expected a reply yesterday'.