A look at the life and career of the author. I found the book particularly interesting as I was born in the BMH and lived in both HK and China. Her career unfolds against a back drop of great change in HK, from British Colony to SAR. There are many interesting strands, such as seeing behind the curtain of HK government policy; the career path of a female civil servant, as well as her passages on Chinese colleagues; juggling a career and a family; and HK itself.
For readers less familiar with HK, I would recommend the sections on immigration, SARS and the handover. ( )

An insider's account of Hong Kong administration before and after the handover, well-written, informed and very readable, not at all as forbidding as one might imagine. The author is my contemporary and I particularly liked the account of her childhood and education, life at Oxford and how she embarked on her career. We might have crossed paths in Nyon - but I have some reservations about her stories of life in Switzerland, which seem exaggerated, or caricatural, or apocryphal - in all the 45 years I have lived here, I have never been visited at home by inspectors of the Contrôle des Habitants or met with any other of the inconveniences described. Though it does take time to become "integrated" and I wonder if Rachel moved in circles other than governmental and apparently bourgeois. Thanks to the publisher BlacksmithBooks for sending me the book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme. ( )

I received a copy of this novel through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2015/08/10/review-paper-tigress/

Suffice to say Paper Tigress was an interesting look into life and work in colonial Hong Kong in the twentieth century right up to its return to China in 1997 but also includes incidents that happened afterwards right up to Ms. Cartland’ retirement. I’m not wholly familiar with Hong Kong history or politics other than its place in British history and society of the time and the general happenings in the region in the twentieth century. So reading up about its infastructure, the obstacles it faced, and its customs was quite interesting. It can be dense at times, especially as this memoir looks at the administrative side of the work, but nonetheless very informative.

This book was also prettty great in following Ms. Cartland’s life and career. The reader reads as she rose up the ranks from her humble beginnings in England to gaining such a prominent position in the Hong Kong government, not to mention she was only one of two women who held such positions. Reading her experiences were very interesting–she had witnessed so much in her life and career–and quite inspirational in what’s she’s done and what she’s achieved.

Paper Tigress was overall a very interesting read. I learned a lot about what was going on at Hong Kong at the time as well as its unique relationships to China and the United Kingdom. It can be a bit dry at times if you’re not especially interested in politics and current events of the 20th century, but students of history and political science may be interested in checking out this title. ( )

I really enjoyed this, a very interesting account of the author's experiences in Hong Kong. I very much enjoyed the style of writing and the detail about the operation of HK government. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. Rachel Cartland has both a gift for noticing interesting details and for catching them in words.

I got a few good chuckles out of her descriptions of life in Geneva, as both of us followed our husbands there for a few years. Time and context were quite different, but I recognized what she was talking about.

Most of the book though is about Hong Kong and about working in the administration there. I appreciated that the book took me to everyday Hong Kong, and not to the tourist city. I've read about that. Now that I have finished, I can say that I would have liked more about her children, more about the household challenges, but while I was reading, her working life held me fascinated. ( )