Congratulations to David Fettling, for his recently published book Encounters with Asian Decolonisation (Australian Scholarly Publishing), which tells the story of how, five Australians, all government officials, experienced first-hand the ‘revolt of Asia’ after the Second World War. In doing so, it reveals much about the evolution of Australia’s Asian engagement during the twentieth century and demonstrates how those experiences of adjusting to decolonisation have acute contemporary relevance.