Dr. Clement Williams was a British army surgeon, political agent, and businessman who gained unparalleled access to the court of King Mindon, the great ruler of Mandalay, between 1861 and his premature death in 1873.

William’s official diaries, his legal disputes, his commercial contracts, his travel book, and (most of all) his extraordinarily rare photographs offer a unique portrait of an ancient civilisation on the cusp of industrial, technological, and political change. Drawing on primary sources and academic works, The Informal Imperialist has already been recognised as a significant contribution to Burmese studies within and beyond Myanmar. And, by weaving Williams’s story into a clear and compelling narrative, it reveals a vanished world to both scholars and general readers alike.