Alexandra Needham has been a member of the British diplomatic service since 2004. From 2007 - 2010 she served as Political Consul at the British Consulate-General in the Chongqing (formerly Chungking) in western China, now one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Chongqing was not the easiest of diplomatic postings, and the idea for this book came from that time there. She currently works in Laos as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Vientiane.