Austin Coates was a British civil servant, writer and traveller. He was the son of noted English composer Eric Coates. Austin Coates wrote extensively on topics related to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Hong Kong and Macau. He was first connected to the East through his service for the Royal Air Force intelligence in India, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia in the Second World War. After the war, he worked for the Hong Kong government as Assistant Colonial Secretary and Magistrate in the New Territories from 1949 to 1956. As a magistrate, he gained insight on the Chinese customs and character, and he applied Chinese laws to solve many of his cases. After Hong Kong, he was the Chinese Affairs Officer in Sarawak from 1957 to 1959; First Secretary of the British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur and Penang from 1959 to 1962. In 1962, he left the British civil service to concentrate on writing. In 1965, he settled in Hong Kong and continued travelling and writing extensively. In 1968, he published , a biography of the Philippine national heroJosé Rizal which serves as the second biographical account of the life and career of Rizal authored by a non-Filipino. Coates was the guest of many prominent Asians, among them the Tagore family, the Indian painter Jamini Roy and Mahatma Gandhi. After his visit with Gandhi, he decided that understanding between East and West was one of the most important goals in the world. His book, City of Broken Promises was made into an extremely successful musical for the Hong Kong Art Festival in 1978. The show was also staged in San Jose in 1979, starring Teresa Carpio.
Rizal, Philippine Nationalist and Martyr, Oxford University Press. José Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines.
China, India and the Ruins of Washington New York: John Day, discusses the longevity of the Chinese and Indian civilisations in contrast to the Western civilisation.
A Macao Narrative Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 1999, 146 pp., preface by Cesar Guillen-Nunez
Whampoa: Ships on the Shore, about the founding of the Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Company and the transformation of Hong Kong from a sleepy little village to the seventh biggest port of the world.
China Races Oxford University Press, a history of racing on the China Coast commissioned by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Quick Tidings of Hong Kong Singapore: Oxford University Press
Other non-fiction
Report on the Southern District Rural development, Village communities, Southern District New Territories
Myself a Mandarin London: Frederick Muller, describes the author's experience as a special magistrate in the New Territories.
Numerology Coates explains his system of reading people's characters and predicting their fortunes based on their names and birth dates.
Novels
The Road, novel about Hong Kong's Lantau Island during 20th century.
