Additional information
by Martin Booth (Author)
At seven years old, Martin Booth found himself with all of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in 1952. This is his memoir of that youth, a time when he had access to corners of the colony normally closed to a gweilo, a "pale fellow" like him. From the plink plonk man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, and from a drunken child molester to the Queen of Kowloon (the crazed tramp who may have been a Romanov), Martin saw it all--but his memoir illustrates a deeper challenge in his warring parents. This is an intimate and powerful memory of a place and time now past.
Front Jacket
At seven years old, Martin Booth found himself with all of Hong Kong at his feet. His father was posted there in 1952, and this memoir is his telling of that youth, a time when he had access to the corners of a colony normally closed to a "Gweilo," a "pale fellow" like him.
His experiences were colorful and vast. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders, he learned Cantonese, sampled delicacies such as boiled water beetles and one-hundred-year-old eggs, and participated in vibrant festivals. He even entered the forbidden Kowloon Walled City, wandered into a secret lair of Triads, and visited an opium den.
From the plink-plonk man with his dancing monkey to the Queen of Kowloon (a crazed tramp who may have been a Romanov), Martin Booth saw it all---but his memoir illustrates the deeper challenges he faced in his warring parents: a broad-minded mother who embraced all things Chinese and a bigoted father who was enraged by his family's interest in "going native."
Martin Booth's compelling memoir, the last book he completed before dying, glows with infectious curiosity and humor and is an intimate representation of the now extinct time and place of his growing up.
"Marvelously appealing memoir charts an enchanted few years of boyhood in post-war Hong Kong. Warm and vivid, bursting with life and energy, this is a valentine--but a clear-eyed one--to a particular place and time."--"Kirkus (starred) "One of the most original and engaging memoirs of recent years. Personal, witty, and true."--"The Times (UK)
"Wonderful memoir...such pace and power."--"Sunday Telegraph (UK)
"Highly evocative. As a sharp-eyed, sensitive child of a vanished Hong Kong, Booth earns hisnostalgia."--"The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Author Biography
Martin Booth wrote the nonfiction histories Cannabis and Opium and the novel Hiroshima Joe, among many others. He died shortly after completing this manuscript in 2004.
