Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady

About the Book MEMOIRS OF AN ICE-CREAM LADY is a charming and humorous series of anecdotes and reflections by a single Chinese lady, who established and managed an ice-cream parlour selling top-end ice-cream on the small outlying Hong Kong island of Lamma. Here locals and some residents from overseas live in close contact, as observed and recorded here by Emily's unblinkered eye. Comments on the traditional Chinese attitudes to girls and unmarried women mingle with reflections on meddling neighbours, the odd habits of customers, the ingratitude of teenage girls and the antics of feisty ferry passengers. Petty quibbles find perspective from Emily's account of the impact on her neighbourhood of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and her response to an earthquake disaster on the Chinese Mainland. Emily's perspective is quirky and unique, but unquestionably valid. Behind the amused and critical eye of a modern-day Mrs Gaskell is another object of concern – the writer herself: – what is her place in this world where her own values and emotions are so often at issue with most of those in her milieu? About the Author EMILY HO was born into a traditional Chinese family living in a fishing village on one of Hong Kong's outlying islands. As the fourth girl in the family, she has always used writing to develop a "fantasy empire" in which everything is possible. After experience in a travel agency in a hotel and as an account manager with a big telecommunications company, followed by a six-month period in New York, nine years ago she opened her own ice-cream shop on another of Hong Kong's outlying islands. Her experiences and the lessons she has learned in this venture have been the driving-force for her semi-autobiographical Memoirs, which she wrote at quiet moments in her shop. "This charming story of an ice-cream parlor in Hong Kong's Lamma Island is a whimsical mixture of crazy characters, wise sayings, anecdotes, history and fantasies. A story of love and betrayal, told simply and straight from the heart." — Patricia W. Grey, author of Death Has A Thousand Doors (2011)