Martin Booth

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.

""One of the most original and engaging memoirs of recent years. Personal, witty, and true.""--The Times (London)
 
""A dream world, enchantingly recreated . . . Bold and curious, Booth treated Hong Kong as his personal amusement park, making a beeline to every single location expressly forbidden by his parents, including and especially the secret walled city controlled by the Chinese mafia. . . . An extraordinarily happy book, filled with . . . color, variety, adventure . . . hilarious set-pieces, and pulsating with Hong Kong's vibrant street life.""--William Grimes, The New York Times