Memories and incidents begin with being a refugee in Cental China on a Japanese riverboat to escape the armies of Chiang Kai-Shek approaching our city from the South. Opium smoking passengers made me sick. I was five years old.

"Mr. Lowe lives the simple and happy life of a contented shopkeeper. A Chinese immigrant to Jamaica in the 1890s, Lowe revels in the verdant surroundings of his adoptive land. But his mysterious past begins to confront Lowe in everything he does, and so his story emerges - the tale of his exile from China, his shipboard adventures, an unwanted pregnancy, and the arrangement of hidden identity that was made to avoid scandal. Lowe marries the beautiful widow Miss Sylvie as part of the arrangement, and their relationship is complex, vivid, and full of secrets. When his shop burns to the ground Lowe is forced to reckon with his past through the destruction of his disguises and the creation of a new dream: the building of a pagoda where culture and the past can be fully embraced." -- back cover.

Set in the late 1800s, here is the story of Ning, a Chinese American girl who struggles to find her place in the world when she is forced to leave her home in Shanghai to go live in America with a father she barely knows. This middle-grade historical novel is based on the family history of award-winning author Michaela MacColl. Twelve-year-old Ning doesn't know where she belongs. The daughter of a Chinese woman and American man, Ning doesn't fit in in 1870s Shanghai, where her American features and unbound feet make her stand out. When she receives news that her father will be visiting from America, Ning excitedly hopes that her parents will become a family. Instead, she learns that her father is taking her back with him to America. Ning wonders if being American will finally give her a sense of belonging, but when she arrives, she discovers that living in America isn't perfect either. In this coming-of-age novel based on the life of author Michaela MacColl's great-great-great-grandmother, a young girl learns to accept both sides of her heritage and find a new identity for herself.

Composed over two thousand years ago, the Ramayana was transmitted to Southeast Asia in the first centuries CE. Over the years, it was adapted to suit local customs and traditions. The story of Rama's exile with his wife Sita, her abduction by the ogre king Ravanna, her rescue and Rama's triumphant return to Ayodhaya, captured the imagination of the kings of Siam, Cambodia and Indonesia. This triumph of good over evil was then visualized in stone carvings, drama, shadow puppets and mural paintings. Among the latter, Thailand and Cambodia have the finest examples. In the Shadow of Rama by long-standing expert, Dr. Vittorio Roveda, examines the most beautiful paintings. In Siam, we tour the famous murals of the Grand Palace in Bangkok and the intricacies of the shadow puppets, Nang Yai. In Cambodia, Roveda studies the delicate and expressive murals of Wat Bo, Siem Reap, as well as the those at the Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh. He also explains how in Siam the Ramayana became the Ramakien and in Cambodia the Reamker. This magnificent book is the culmination of 20 years of research and provides a visual feast for all those fascinated by the art of Southeast Asia. ILLUSTRATION: 500 colour illustrations

Tigers, Mountains and Pagodas The story of a special and adventurous life At the end of 1923 Stanley Robins passed out of Sandhurst as a prize-winning cadet. He was commissioned into the North Staffordshire regiment, at the time based in British India. Stanley was "thrilled" at this posting as he saw army service in India as the gateway to a "special and adventurous life"; and so it turned out to be. In India Stanley became an expert and highly knowledgeable big game hunter, especially of tigers, including man-eaters and gained a deep affinity with the Indian Jungle and its wildlife. He became a lifelong friend of Jim Corbett; the greatest of the big game hunters. Like Jim he was to be an advocate for wildlife conservation and condemned post World War II hunting methods, especially in Africa. Army postings sent Stanley to the dangerous and volatile North-West Frontier, where "no man's life was safe". He was decorated for gallantry in one of the hardest fought operations on the Frontier. Despite the dangers of nearly constant action against the war-like border tribes he gained a deep knowledge of its people, the country and the culture. Whenever military postings allowed he was keen to visit and learn about the India that had put a "spell" on him; its varied peoples, culture and history and to visit the areas of India rarely seen by most Europeans. As international tensions grew in the late 1930s Stanley was transferred to what became the 14h Army in Burma, playing a vital part in the Allied fighting withdrawal from the "Land of Pagodas" and was decorated for his distinguished service. He was the last man out of Rangoon and the first through the Taukkyan Roadblock, by which the Japanese army hoped to trap Allied forces in Burma, in their lightning campaign. During the Allied liberation of Burma Stanley was personally selected by General Slim, commander of the 14th Army, to ensure effective, critical and growing logistical support for Allied forces, US, Chinese and British, in their advance against the Japanese. At Indian independence Stanley's actions and decisions on that day prevented what might have been a massacre of Europeans and loyal Indian Army soldiers at Nagpur.