For The Record and other Poems of Hong Kong (3rd Paperback)

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 “These sixty poems are primarily about familiar things (the Tai Po Highway, Ko Shan theatre, the MTR, the USD...), occasions (the Mid-autumn Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival...), and people (you and me). Here, the sensitive and caring eyes of a detached artist give us insights, excitements and critical judgments easily overlooked in our busy daily lives.”—Simon Chau from his Translator’s note to his Chinese translation of For the Record.

This collection of sixty poems, a new edition with additional commentary of a work first published in 2003, was written during almost thirty years' residence in Hong Kong. Most are on explicitly Hong Kong topics, and reflect the writer's personal experience and knowledge of Hong Kong. They date from a time when there was no MTR or Cross Harbour Tunnel, certainly no Disneyland, and the transport system was not the world-class convenience we enjoy today. Other poems narrate and reflect on personal events and concerns which transcend the local. This new edition is published to accompany the first international publication as an Ebook of the Chinese translation of the poems, made some years ago by Dr Simon Chau.

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“Gillian Bickley has the sharp eye and strong stomach of the true realist. ... brilliantly observed.... ‘Tobacco’ is about as close as any poet comes to word-perfect... Not even the American minimalist William Carlos Williams could zero in on and capture a detail with more panache. ...A thought-provoking and entertaining contribution to Hong Kong literature. Bickley succeeds in conveying the character of the Fragrant Harbour with humorous rigour.” — David Wilson, Sunday Morning Post, 21 September 2003

“fresh, insightful ... an important contribution to the evolution of cross-cultural poetry in, and about, Hong Kong.... she is perhaps at her best in describing people and commonplace events in Hong Kong.—Ian Wotherspoon, OSPA, nd [2004]

“Very familiar with the local ways of doing things, lifestyle and city environment, [Bickley] observes the place from different perspectives -- from that of a poet, a Westerner, a teacher, a daughter, a woman. . . . Bickley's work is fun to read. She is an expatriate, but sometimes with a local perspective.”—Cindy Chu, Book Review, Hong Kong Journal of Modern Chinese History, Modern Chinese History Society of Hong Kong, 2004, No. 2.