No doubt Ronnie Knox-Mawer did his best to uphold the dignity of British justice in the remote South Sea islands but, as this hilarious autobiography reveals, his best was often not good enough.
It did not help that he had to contend with the manic eccentricities of the District Commissioner and the curious customs of the Polynesians. Inevitably, he fell far short of the standards demanded by Mr Pandit Raj Sharma, his beetle-browed Court Registrar.
These light-hearted recollections from the author of Tales from a Palm Court evoke delightfully the end of Empire in a corner of paradise.
Noel Coward observed on a visit to Ronnie Knox-Mawer, "Social life in the South Pacific has its limits". But what they were, Ronnie Knox-Mawer never did find out.
