11 Nov 2025
“Searching for Billie”: A Journalist’s quest gives new meaning to the word “Mother”
Every Mother’s Day, family members pay dignified tribute to their mothers. Gracious prose and images hail the role of the matriarchs in shaping their lives. But deep down, how much do families actually know about their mothers, their trials and tribulations, their life and times, their heartbreaks and heartaches and perhaps most importantly, their pursuit of survival in difficult times?
Ian Gill, a former journalist for the Asian Wall Street Journal and communications director for the Asian Development Bank, set off to find out. Of Anglo-Saxon/Chinese ancestry, he was conceived 80 years ago in a Japanese prison camp and born in New Zealand. How exactly that transpired itself makes the book worth a read.
Spanning two continents and nearly a century, “Searching for Billie” is a historical record, a travelogue, a novel, a thriller, a personal story and a thought-provoking insight into conflicts, colonialism, multiculturalism, commercial and political machinations all rolled into one. Page after page, readers will be riveted by the colour, passion and minute human-interest details of ordinary people on the move, seeking safety, sanctuary and greener pastures, sheltering their loved ones and coping with the fluidity of human relationships.
Residents of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, amongst many other places, will relate to many familiar landmarks of the bygone days. Descendants of families who lived in that era will identify with the dynamics of surviving the external and internal forces of change sweeping through the local and global environments.
Travel & Tourism veterans will find fascinating references to historic tidbits at the Dock Hotel on Southampton’s waterfront, the then newly-opened luxury Hongkong Hotel and the Gloucester hotel in Hong Kong, the Beach and Family hotels in Chefoo, China, the Cathay Hotel in Shanghai, and many more. Personally, I was captivated by the chapter on Ian Gill’s childhood in Bangkok when his mother worked at the UN ECAFE, or ESCAP as it is now known.
In an era obsessed with “the future”, this book will make readers respect and appreciate the value of the past. Ian Gill and a host of friends and colleagues delved into historic archives carefully preserved in libraries, museums, media morgues, government and court records, discovering nuggets of gold not just about his mother, but her ancestors and the people who shaped and influenced her life.
The book will appeal to readers across multiple demographic and geographic segments. But it is the two final concluding paragraphs which have universal appeal.
As societies age and today’s generation finds itself always short of time, this book will make people reassess the value of the TIME they spend with their parents and families. In the final days of their parents’ lives, corporate priorities will recede in importance, memories will come rushing back. They will regret not getting to know their parents, not giving them enough love and respect, and not doing enough for them while they were alive.
Finally, in an era of high-stress relationships, this book will make readers appreciate the value of friendships and families. As Ian Gill writes in his final paragraph:
The book is a perfect gift for the next Mother’s Day.
Mr Gill gave a talk on the book at the British Club in Bangkok.
