Written by ‘Shway Yoe, a subject of the Great Queen’, a pseudonym of the colonial administrator Sir James George Scott, The Burman: His life and notions is an account of the culture and society of Burma (now Myanmar). First published in 1882, it was Scott’s most significant work, gleaned from several years working as a teacher, eventually becoming headteacher, at St John’s College, an Anglican mission school in Lower Burma. He had developed an intimate knowledge of Burmese society and the book quickly became a standard work on the country during British rule.