From the author
of Travels with My Angst and
Any Guru Will Do, a vivid, nostalgic, and funny memoir of growing up
in Hong Kong in the 1960s.
Phil Brown's life
begins in small town Australia — Maitland, NSW to be precise — but in 1963 his
father Ted hankers to return to the Hong Kong of his childhood and to cash in
on a construction boom in the burgeoning colony.
Then under British
rule, the world of Hong Kong is a truly fascinating place for gweilos or foreigners, both a colonial
outpost and a region redolent with all the exoticism and contradictions of the
Far East. The Brown’s home, in the garden suburb of Kowloon Tong, buzzes with
characters: the family's amah, Ah Moy, frequent visitors such as the
inscrutable Mr Lai, the spy-like Tony Parr, and family members such as Uncle
Cyril. Not to mention the kid from across the road, Michael Hutchence.
Combining recent
visits to Hong Kong, where the author explores his childhood touchstones of the
Kowloon Cricket Club, the beach at Shek O, the Peninsula Hong Kong and the bustling
lanes of Kowloon, with an affectionate yet truly honest portrait of family,
self and the 1960s The Kowloon Kid is
an intimate and tender gem.
‘An exquisite love
letter to Hong Kong.’ — Ross
Fitzgerald
