Long Time No See

Hannah Lowe's father 'Chick', a half-Chinese, half-black Jamaican immigrant, worked long hours at night to support his family - except that Chick was not an ordinary working man. A legendary gambler, he would vanish into the shadows of London's East End to win at cards or dice, returning during daylight to greet the daughter whose love and respect he courted. Swinging between the Jamaica of her father's troubled childhood and his own violent relationship with his father and his eventual experience of an immigrant's journey to the West, this is a poignant memoir. Lowe evokes the unstable world of card sharps, confidence men and small-time criminals that eventually took its toll on Chick. In breath taking prose, Lowe also chronicles her own coming of age in a changing Britain. Long Time No See speaks eloquently of love and its absence, regret and compassion, and the struggle to know oneself.