From tiny Brunei to the vast expanses of China, Australia's Asian neighbours are a widely varying group of landscapes, cultures, peoples and histories.

This book tells their stories from ancient times of kingdoms and dynasties through French, British, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese colonial eras to independence and beyond.

It is a chronicle of great nations rising and falling, of arrogant European colonialism, of cultural and economic successes and failures. Every one of these has its own special story.

These are Australia's Asian Neighbours.