Graham Heywood was born in England in 1903 and was sent to Hong Kong in 1932 to join the Royal Observatory. He became its director in 1946 after Hong Kong’s liberation from Japanese occupation, and served until 1955. He died peacefully at home in England in 1985.

Heywood was also the author of Rambles in Hong Kong which was first published in 1938 and reissued in 1992.

Publication of his diary has come about through the efforts of Heywood’s family in the UK and Ireland; Hong Kong-based editor G. C. Emerson; and current director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Shun Chi Ming.