Martin Booth's 'Golden Boy' : Further information

Submitted by Admin on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 20:53

If you enjoyed reading Martin Booth's memoir, Golden Boy (published as 'Gweilo' in some markets), here is a place to find & contribute extra information about the places and lifestyle he describes. We've divided it by chapter, so just click on the chapter you're interested in for more information.

Extra notes for contributors:

The quickest way to add some information about one of the chapters is to click on the chapter from the list below, then click the 'add new comment' link.

If you are writing about a specific location, I recommend you add it as a place. As you create the place, please add the tag 'golden boy' then a comma and and a tag for the chapter(s), so that it shows up on the map of places for that chapter. eg if you were adding a place for the Fourseas Hotel, its tags would be:

 golden boy, chapter 3, chapter 10

Comments

I have added various locations for each chapter, I think I have most of them. Hopefully we can start creating the places and filling in the blanks for those locations/buildings that are no longer around, or more difficult to pinpoint for relative newbies like me.

Cheers

Phil

A wonderful surprise this morning - Martin Booth's wife has got in touch. She very kindly sent us "some photographs of Martin's during his time as a boy in Hong Kong which might help to illustrate some of the places and lifestyle he mentioned."

I've uploaded them to this gallery, and hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did.

A big thank you to Mrs Booth for sharing these,

regards, David

Wow!! that is the most fantastic thing to have happened.

You know, I secretly hoped that somehow we would be able to get in touch with Mrs Booth and see if she had any photos from her husband/mother-in-law. Looks like sometimes wishes do come true :-)

It's amazing to finally see what the Fourseas Hotel actually looked like (much more low-rise than I had imagined) and of course the hill in front of it (which housed the squatter area) which is much bigger than I had imagined. It's hard to reconcile some of the photos with what stands in their place now.

Great photos and very generous of Mrs Booth given the personal nature of some of them.

I just finished reading this book.  What a gem.  Thanks for this site.  It makes a great companion to the book.  Thanks to Mrs. Booth for the pictures.  It's so unfortunate Mr. Martin Booth is not around anymore. 

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Submitted by
Anonymous (not verified)
on
Fri, 02/19/2010 - 07:01

I'm fascinated by the idea that the elderly street woman Martin meets may have been Russian royalty. Does anyone have any more information about her, or remember her seeing her around? From the book it sounds like she may have been a familiar sight.

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Submitted by
Anonymous (not verified)
on
Mon, 02/22/2010 - 03:03

Well, according to Wikipedia, all bodies of the Romanov family have now been accounted for. They were all killed around the same time, so it looks like the Queen of Kowloon could not have been a Romanov, bummer. That really added an element of intrigue to HK's recent history for me.  

If anyone who reads this has a contact email / mailing address for Mrs Booth, please could they contact me by email?

david@gwulo.com

I've had two different requests from people who'd like to use these photos for projects related to Martin Booth's book, but unfortunately the old AOL email address Mrs Booth used when she wrote to me in 2008 is no longer working.

Thanks & regards,

David Bellis