{"product_id":"searching-for-billie","title":"Searching for Billie","description":"\u003cp\u003eIan Gill's first visit to Hong Kong in 1975 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 Hong Kong and Shanghai. \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eHe 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe backdrop for this fascinating family story is China's turbulent century from the Anglo-Chinese wars of the 1840s to the advent of communism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blacksmith Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":66337634582877,"sku":null,"price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1041\/3893\/2573\/files\/9789887554660.jpg?v=1793095932","url":"https:\/\/shop.gazellebookservices.co.uk\/products\/searching-for-billie","provider":"Gazelle Book Services","version":"1.0","type":"link"}