My Beautiful Island

This is a story of contrasts: contrasting countries, cultures, attitudes and fates. The thread connecting them is the commentary of one articulate and strong-willed woman, my mother. In her letters, notes and diary we read about the 6-day trip from London to Hong Kong in 1938 via flying boat; the enviable social life of busy expatriates in Hong Kong from 1938 to 1941; and the horror, heartbreak and suffering that followed the Japanese invasion in December 1941. My father, being an eligible ...