IT has been more than 15 years in the making but after writing a book in 1999 about his time as a policeman in Hong Kong, a former Orford resident was delighted to see his autobiography top the country's bestseller list.

Former Warrington policeman Chris Emmett, based at Arpley Street station, moved to the country in 1970 when he was aged 22, 'single and ready for an adventure' after becoming one of the first three Warrington cadets aged 17 and then a constable at Bruche.

His book Hong Kong Policeman is an account of the author’s early days as a colonial police inspector covering everything from triad street gangs to the change of sovereignty in 1997.

The 66-year-old said: “I was writing an after dinner speech in 1999 and it was like a row of dominoes and ended up as a book.

“I sent the manuscript to a Hong Kong based publishing house owned by an Englishman who has lived and worked out there for decades.

"He guided me through several rewrites and 20,000 words and nine months later my book was published."

The former Warrington Technology College pupil lived in Hong Kong as a child while his dad served in the Army but headed back to the country and stayed there for 28 years after seeing an advert for police recruits.

He added: "Warrington police was very different then.

“There was more emphasis on front-line policing and less on paperwork.

"At any one time, there were at least six officers on foot patrol in the town centre alone.

"After six months of basic training and a year in general uniform duties in Hong Kong, I moved to the Chinese border.

"This was the tail end of the Chairman Mao era and things were pretty tense.

"After that, I did a tour with the paramilitary police tactical unit then went on to command a regional drug squad before moving to CID and spending six months prosecuting in the magistrates court.

"And all this before I was 26.

"It was real, old-fashioned colonial policing and there was probably a bit more respect for authority there as the Chinese are so community-orientated.

"Particularly in villages they were very law-abiding and it would take a couple of hours to walk out to see them as there were no cars."

The father-of-two moved back to the UK in 1998 after retiring in the rank of senior superintendent and set up home in North Yorkshire with his two adopted daughters, Jessica, aged 32 and Victoria, aged 28 who are Vietnamese and Chinese but returned to Hong Kong last year to launch the book.

He added: “It was my first visit since I retired in 1998 and I saw a lot of changes.

“There’s a sense that Hong Kong is becoming part of the greater China.

"There’s a lot of nostalgia for the colonial era, particularly with Hong Kong’s youth, who probably don’t remember much about that time.”

Hong Kong Policeman is available via online sites Amazon, WHSmiths and Foyles.