Book description
Martin Booth died in February 2004, shortly after finishing the book
that would be his epitaph - this wonderfully remembered, beautifully
told memoir of a childhood lived to the full in a far-flung outpost of
the British Empire...
An inquisitive seven-year-old, Martin Booth found himself with the
whole of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in the
early 1950s. Unrestricted by parental control and blessed with bright
blond hair that signified good luck to the Chinese, he had free access
to hidden corners of the colony normally closed to a Gweilo, a 'pale
fellow' like him. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders,
he learnt Cantonese, sampled delicacies such as boiled water beetles
and one-hundred-year-old eggs, and participated in colourful
festivals. He even entered the forbidden Kowloon Walled City, wandered
into the secret lair of the Triads and visited an opium den. Along the
way he encountered a colourful array of people, from the plink plonk
man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, a drunken child molester,
and the Queen of Kowloon, the crazed tramp who may have been a member
of the Romanov family.
Shadowed by the unhappiness of his warring parents, a broad-minded
mother who, like her son, was keen to embrace all things Chinese, and
a bigoted father who was enraged by his family's interest in 'going
native', Martin Booth's compelling memoir is a journey into Chinese
culture and an extinct colonial way of life that glows with infectious
curiosity and humour.
Martin Booth is internationally known as a writer and biographer. An
acclaimed novelist, his
The Industry of Souls
was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1998. When he was diagnosed
with a brain tumour in 2002 he was inspired to delve into his Hong Kong
childhood and write
Gweilo
. He died in February 2004, shortly after completing the manuscript
