Kirjahaku

Nicholas Highgate, separated from his parents during the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, is smuggled to the mainland by his Chinese nurse and disguised as a Chinese boy. As he grows to manhood he witnesses the atrocities and deprivations of the Japanese occupation and is himself drawn into the Communist resistance activities. The book ends when the Japanese surrender and Nicholas is reunited with what remains of his family.

A fascinating chronicle of opium's effect on the world's history and culture discusses its prehistoric use in religious rituals, its role in international wars and in great art, and the current state of the powerful heroin industry. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. LJ. K. NYT.

One of the most powerful novels about the experience of war, first published in 1985Captured by Hirohito's soldiers at the fall of Hong Kong and transferred to a Japanese slave camp outside Hiroshima, Captain Joe Sandingham was present when the bomb was dropped. Now a shell of a man, he lives in a cheap Hong Kong hotel, scrounging for food and the occasional bar girl. The locals call him "Hiroshima Joe" with a mixture of pity and contempt. But Joe haunted by the sounds and voices of his past, debilitated by illness, and shattered by his wartime ordeal is a man whose compassion and will to survive define a clear-eyed and unexpected heroism."

Known as Signor Farfalla--Mr. Butterfly--to his neighbors in the southern Italian town where he lives, an inconspicuous gentleman who spends his days painting, idling at local cafes, and getting together with his friend, the town priest, over a glass of brandy, discovers that his mysterious past is about to be revealed and a deadly menace is closing in on him. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

In the summer of 1914 Alec Marquand has just graduated from college and has been hired by the lord of a remote country estate in the Scottish Highlands to survey the ancient Iron Age brochs that lie on his property. Once there Alec comes upon a small island which is called Eileen Tosdach--the Island of Silence. Just as Alec makes his amazing find, he is shipped off to war, sent to storm the beaches of Gallipoli. From the author of the Booker shortlisted "The Industry of Souls," this is a gripping tour through one man's hell in search of a path for redemption.

A personal account of the author's coming-of-age in 1950s Hong Kong describes how he moved to the region with his family at the age of seven, his experiences of early adolescence as a British citizen in a Chinese society, and his witness to the conflicts between his Chinese-embracing mother and bigoted father. By the author of Hiroshima Joe. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Part thriller, part character study, part drama of deceit and self-betrayal, The American (A Very Private Gentleman) shows Martin Booth at the very height of his powers. The basis for the 2010 action-packed film starring George Clooney The locals in the southern Italian town where he lives call him Signor Farfalla--Mr. Butterfly: for he is a discreet gentleman who paints rare butterflies. His life is inconspicuous--mornings spent brushing at a canvas, afternoons idling in the cafes, and evening talks with his friend the town priest over a glass of brandy. Yet there are other sides to this gentleman's life: Clara: the young student who moonlights in the town bordello. And another woman who arrives with $100,000 and a commission, but not for a painting of butterflies. With this assignment returns the dark fear that has dogged Signor Farfalla's mysterious life. Almost instantly, he senses a deadly circle closing in on him, one which he may or may not elude.

When 12-year-old Daniel appears at Dark Creek ranch, the owner, Matt, takes him in. Accompanied by an elderly Mexican cowhand, No-head Nolan, an eccentric vaquero, Beto and Matt's daughter, Daniel is left to drive the cattle along the Shawnee Trail 680 miles to Kansas.

Over the last three centuries, wherever the Chinese have emigrated, they have taken their outlawed secret brotherhoods. Booth tells the story of the Triads, from their beginnings over two thousand years ago to the unrivalled criminal empire they operate today.

Whatever the viewpoint, and by whatever name it is known, cannabis - or marijuana, hashish, pot, dope, kif, weed, dagga, grass, ganja - incites debate at every level. In this definitive study, Martin Booth - author of the acclaimed OPIUM: A HISTORY - charts the history of cannabis from the Neolithic period to the present day.

Martin Booth died in February 2004, shortly after finishing the book that would be his epitaph - this wonderfully remembered, beautifully told memoir of a childhood lived to the full in a far-flung outpost of the British Empire...An inquisitive seven-year-old, Martin Booth found himself with the whole of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in the early 1950s. Unrestricted by parental control and blessed with bright blond hair that signified good luck to the Chinese, he had free access to hidden corners of the colony normally closed to a Gweilo, a 'pale fellow' like him. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders, he learnt Cantonese, sampled delicacies such as boiled water beetles and one-hundred-year-old eggs, and participated in colourful festivals. He even entered the forbidden Kowloon Walled City, wandered into the secret lair of the Triads and visited an opium den. Along the way he encountered a colourful array of people, from the plink plonk man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, a drunken child molester, and the Queen of Kowloon, the crazed tramp who may have been a member of the Romanov family.Shadowed by the unhappiness of his warring parents, a broad-minded mother who, like her son, was keen to embrace all things Chinese, and a bigoted father who was enraged by his family's interest in 'going native', Martin Booth's compelling memoir is a journey into Chinese culture and an extinct colonial way of life that glows with infectious curiosity and humour.

The locals in the Italian village where he lives call him Signor Farfalla - Mr Butterfly. But Farfalla's real profession is deadly. Then, perhaps, he can settle down comfortably in the Italian village he has grown to love and enjoy the remainder of his life without constantly looking over his shoulder.

First published in 1985, British Poetry presents a personal and political account of British poetry from 1964 to 1984. Martin booth, himself a poet, poetry publisher, critic and editor, and the participant in poetry readings in Britain and overseas, shows that British poetry underwent a renaissance in the ten years from around 1964: poetry became a major popular art form, shaking off its shackles of elitism and academicism; poetry readings flourished, whether live or on the air and audiences increased; many new poets found willing publishers. He looks at the manner in which British poetry rose, only to fall back into a morbid sleek artiness where he sees it laying today, once again a narrow art for the literary educated and the initiated.The book aims to reverse this change of direction so that British poetry may once again have the impact it briefly had in its recent heyday. Martin Booth also provides a general guide to the period, with much comment included from those who were involved in the act of keeping British poetry going in those exciting years. He deals with the poets themselves, with the publishing of poetry, and poetry magazines, and his ‘non-literary’, ‘non-academic’ approach will appeal to all those who have an interest in modern British verse.

In his debut novel for young readers, Martin Booth shares the origins of military dogs through the tale of a brave black Labrador that was claimed as an infantry patrol dog in World War II. Jet was a well-trained black Labrador who belonged to a young English poacher, Fred Parry. When Fred is caught and jailed before the outbreak of World War II, Jet is requisitioned by the army, where her training stands her in good stead. A charming and sweet tale, War Dog is a fast-paced story about a remarkable dog your young reader will surely come to love.

In 1977 and 1981, Martin Booth-then a poet and small-press publisher, but today better-known as a novelist-published two collections of work about Knotting, the Bedfordshire village where he then lived: The Knotting Sequence and The Cnot Dialogues. The books were published in fine, limited-run editions by The Elizabeth Press in New Rochelle, New York, and few copies travelled across the Atlantic. Indeed, the second of the two books was one of the final books to be published by Elizabeth and received only limited distribution. Here we have spliced the two books together, otherwise unchanged.

Bristol is one of the UK's biggest cities but is small enough to sometimes feel like a village. It is a city built on trading with much of its former maritime heritage now transformed into buzzing independent harbourside businesses in which to eat, drink and let your hair down. Both water and green spaces abound. And you'll have to get used to hills when exploring this cosmopolitan city because like Rome, Bristol was built on seven of them. Step away from the obvious - the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the SS Great Britain (both designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel), or the wonderful We The Curious where science and art collide - and discover unexpected treasures such as secret gardens, hidden memorials to the past and unusual modes of transport. Journey through the old haunts of world famous pirates; past the Oscar-winning animation studio home to Morph and Wallace & Gromit; along shopping streets that sell everything from handcrafted violin bows to locally-made gin; and through an indoor market selling everything from spices to fossils. If you know where to look, Bristol will unravel its secrets in front of your eyes.

Bristol is one of the UK's biggest cities but is small enough to sometimes feel like a village. It is a city built on trading with much of its former maritime heritage now transformed into buzzing independent harbourside businesses in which to eat, drink and let your hair down. Both water and green spaces abound. And you'll have to get used to hills when exploring this cosmopolitan city because like Rome, Bristol was built on seven of them. Step away from the obvious - the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the SS Great Britain (both designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel), or the wonderful We The Curious where science and art collide - and discover unexpected treasures such as secret gardens, hidden memorials to the past and unusual modes of transport. Journey through the old haunts of world famous pirates; past the Oscar-winning animation studio home to Morph and Wallace & Gromit; along shopping streets that sell everything from handcrafted violin bows to locally-made gin; and through an indoor market selling everything from spices to fossils. If you know where to look, Bristol will unravel its secrets in front of your eyes.