{"product_id":"9789887554660","title":"Searching for Billie","description":"\u003cp\u003eIan Gill's first visit to Hong Kong takes an unexpected turn when he meets his Chinese mother Billie's friends, colleagues and fellow ex-prisoners of war, lifting the veil on a tumultuous past in Shanghai and Hong Kong. He moves to Asia and unravels her intriguing journey: from controversial adoption by an English postmaster in Changsha to popular radio broadcaster in wartime Shanghai, from tragedy and a doomed romance in a Japanese internment camp to being decorated by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the United Nations. He discovers a great-grandmother in a determined English farm girl who ends up owning a well-known hotel on the China coast in the 1870s – and he finally meets his father for the first time on a Canadian island in 1985. The backdrop for this fascinating family story is China's turbulent century between the Anglo-Chinese wars and the advent of communism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian Gill","offers":[{"title":"Blacksmith Books |  Paperback \/ softback | Trade paperback (US) |  2024-04-08","offer_id":46012121514239,"sku":"9789887554660","price":22.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_52225cf8-4a21-4d42-81d7-194ca383599b.jpg?v=1723109137","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9789887554660","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}