Gill Shaddick's life has been a tapestry woven with extensive travels that began in Hong Kong and spanned a dozen countries with her husband. Their shared experiences, from counting cotton bollworms in Egypt to running a fishing business in Africa, infuse her writing with a spirit of adventure and global discovery. Influenced by her distant cousin Robert Louis Stevenson and the ticking of an antique clock in her childhood, she has harbored a lifelong enchantment with travel and writing. Her narratives explore the richness of diverse cultures and the insatiable human wanderlust, making her work a compelling journey for the reader.
In this spirited memoir, where Mad Men meets Han Suyin's 'A Many-Splendoured Thing', Gill recreates a Hong Kong of the 1960s. A weekend sail goes awry when she strays into the waters of Communist China. A full-scale search finds no trace. Yet she is alive, reciting from Mao's 'Little Red Book' with no idea what fate awaits her.