{"product_id":"empire-made-me","title":"Empire Made Me","description":"\u003cp\u003e'This is a biography of a nobody that offers a window into an otherwise closed world. It is a life which manages to touch us all...' Empire Made Me\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShanghai in the wake of the First World War was one of the world's most dynamic, brutal and exciting cities - an incredible panorama of nightclubs, opium-dens, gambling and murder.  Threatened from within by communist workers and from without by Chinese warlords and Japanese troops, and governed by an ever more desperate British-dominated administration, Shanghai was both mesmerising and terrible.Into this maelstrom stepped a tough and resourceful ex-veteran Englishman to join the police.  It is his story, told in part through his rediscovered photo-albums and letters, that Robert Bickers has uncovered in this remarkable, moving book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466517225845,"sku":"9780141011950","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141011950.jpg?v=1785654575","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/empire-made-me","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}