Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood

Martin Booth had an amazing memory for the details of post-WWII Hong Kong and the times he had there as a seven to ten year-old boy. His civilian father gets transferred by the British to the far-flung colonial outpost. While his father is more of a spoilsport, his mother tries live life to the utmost--wherever that life may be--and she allows Martin the freedom to do the same. He takes her fully up on that offer, befriending hotel staff, local storekeepers and more and tasting practically every Chinese dish and joining in every local festival with eyes wide open. However, there are actually very few stories of his escapades with fellow children, mostly stories with the adults that surround him and the nature and culture of Hong Kong.Hong Kong is ruthless with its built history, so a book like this is the only way to get to know the Hong Kong that existed only fifty years ago. It includes one of the few descriptions of a westerner in the `Kowloon walled city.' And from an eight year-old boy too!I am grateful that Mr. Booth was able to finish this book before he died. I wish he had lived a few more years for selfish reasons--so that he could have finished a book on his second time around in Hong Kong. I am sure he had just as many adventures as a teen as he did as a young boy.Richard Mason's `World of Suzie Wong' takes place at approximately the same time and is a great and recommended look at a decidedly different part of Hong Kong. So it was neat when Booth's world and Wong's world intersected (innocently) in a few of Golden Boy's pages. Mason actually spent very little time in Hong Kong prior to writing the fictional Suzie Wong, so Golden Boy is a more knowing portrait of Hong.

I'd never heard of English author Martin Booth before. He wrote this personal memoir, recounting 3 years of his childhood in Hong Kong in the early 1950s, just before he recently died of brain cancer. He dedicated the book to his own children, as a way to pass on the story of his life to them. It reads like a novel - one incredible adventure after the next of a boy of 7 let loose on the streets of Hong Kong in the wild years after WWII. It also details the breakdown of the marriage of his mother and father. This is a real treasure trove, a look at the world through the new eyes of a child, but guided by the wise older hand of an older author. I feel like I have traveled and lived in Hong Kong - the sites, sounds, smells - the culture, food, weather, animals, people - all brilliantly alive and real. I also have a better sense of the Chinese and what it means to be Chinese, and a desire to learn more. I only wish Martin had a memoir of his entire life!

Martin Booth is a gifted writer who nicely captures the idea that deep, genuine, and meaningful relationships strike at the heart of a good life. I have recommended this book to several people, and all have loved it.

My mother who died last year, brought my sisters and I up on her stories about Hong Kong. She lived there for about ten years from 1929 until 1939 when not on a home leave in England. I lived some of her memories with her when we did a trip to HK together in 1989. We walked around many of the areas that the Author mentioned and of course had tea at the Peninsula Hotel. Surprisingly she could still find many old haunts and I was impressed that she at seventy could still walk long distances much of it up hill.

Totally fantastic tale as good as anything I have ever read. I highly recommend it to others whether as a historical interest or in a social context. Hope one day to see the story in a movie.

Usually a fast reader, I read this one slowly. I wanted to jump into and become a part of it. I read every word, and would sometimes go back and read a page or a description twice. Then I'd go off into my own world and remember my Hong Kong. Martin Booth has captured every nuance of Hong Kong, where I was lucky enough to spend part of my childhood because of my military father. Hong Kong steals hearts and never gives them back. This book is touching, humorous, evocative, and I will need to read it again very soon!

Very nice. Insightful, charming, very clever...The way Booth writes, it almost doesn't matter whether you are interested in the topic or not. His writing is so wonderful you are guaranteed a good read either way. But in this case it's the best of both worlds. It's a quiet read, no explosions or car chases, but hard to put down nonetheless.

This is my favorite memoir! Martin Booth wrote this final book for his children to provide them a picture of his childhood in Hong Kong. I bought my first copy in Swindon's ( as Gweilo) in the 2000's and although the memoir is set in the 1950's, the author is able to replicate my experiences and create a longing for the current Hong Kong. Whenever my nostalgia gets too deep I re-read this lovely book. My only disappointment is that "Golden Boy" is just another title for Martin Booth's "Gweilo". I was hoping for another treasure.

A superbly written, honest, and genuinely touching book about a child's growing up in a far-off and exotic country at a time when those words actually had a real meaning. And yet, his account was written about a period only a relatively few years ago. An account of the author's three year stay in the early 1950's, in Hong Kong - a place most people now consider to be simply just another sky-scrapered, frenetically-paced, massive business centre.Those final years when colonial empires were winding down and one-by-one disappearing, often held a last fragrance of a way of living which has almost disappeared in our age of mushrooming population and cheap air travel. Reading this beautifully honest story will leave you with memories that I feel you will never forget. Truly a rare gem of a book.

I love this book. I reread it after having lost my original copy (which in the the UK was published as 'Gweilo'). I'm a few years younger but also grew-up in Hong Kong. It is VERY evocative of time and place. And the relationship with his parents is well-told - particularly his martinet of a father. But there is no self-pity.Interestingly he briefly touches on Nagasaki Jim - a tragic character who is destroyed by his wartime experiences. He was brought to life separately in Martin Booth's novel 'Hiroshima Joe' - which was one of my favourite reads of the last 20 years.

For anyone who would ever have had anything to do with Hong Kong. A fascinating read.

This the same book published under the name Gweilo So easy to buy same book twice Beware

Very good condition, thank you