Ireland's Imperial Mandarin, a new biography of Robert Hart. [Photo provided to China Daily]

By the time Sir Robert Hart left Beijing in 1908, he had been a top officer in China's customs for most of his adult life. Now, Ireland's Imperial Mandarin, a biography of Hart, looks at his life.

His biographer Mark O'Neill was at the launch of the book in Beijing on March 15. It was published in January.

Based in Hong Kong, O'Neill is the author of eight books about China.

Beijing was the fourth stop on his book tour after Taipei, Hong Kong and Macao, and he says it was the most important one.

"This is because he (Hart) lived here for 45 years. He lived very close to where I am standing now," says O'Neill at Beijing's Bookworm, a bookstore in the Sanlitun area known for its large collections of English language books about China.