Editing Martin Booth (section)

==Career==
In England, Booth worked as a [[truck driver]], [[legal clerk]], [[wine steward]], and English teacher (in [[Rushden]]).<ref name="Morrison">{{cite magazine |last1=Morrison |first1=Donald |title=Hong Kong's Golden Boy |magazine=Time |date=30 August 2004 |issue=34 |page=74}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Fuller|first=Jean Overton|title=Cats and Other Immortals|publisher=Fuller d'Arch Smith|year=1992|location=Wymington|pages=7–8}}</ref> He also taught English at [[The Castle School, Taunton|Castle School, Taunton]].

In 1974 Booth was Poetry Editor of Fuller d'Arch Smith, founded by Timothy d'Arch Smith and [[Jean Overton Fuller]]. He had recently bought a house in [[Knotting, Bedfordshire|Knotting]] in North [[Bedfordshire]], and was instrumental in finding Fuller a house in [[Wymington]] which also became the registered office of the company.<ref name=":0" />

Booth first made his name as a poet and as a publisher by producing elegant volumes by British and American poets, including slim volumes of work by [[Sylvia Plath]] and [[Ted Hughes]].  His own books of verse include ''The Knotting Sequence'' (1977), featuring the character Cnot who founded the hamlet Knotting.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hotham |first1=Gary |title=The Knotting Sequence |journal=Library Journal |date=1 September 1977 |volume=102 |issue=15 |page=1765}}</ref> The book was named for the village in which Booth was living at the time.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} The book features a series of lyrics in which he seeks links between the present and the Saxon past, and the man called Knot who gave his name to the village. Booth also accumulated a library of contemporary verse, which allowed him to produce anthologies and lectures.

In the late 1970s Booth turned mainly to writing fiction. His first successful novel, ''Hiroshima Joe,'' was published in 1985.  The book is based on what he heard from a man he met as a boy in Hong Kong and contains passages set in that city during the [[Second World War]].

Booth was a veteran traveller who retained an enthusiasm for flying, also expressed in his poems, such as "Kent Says" and In ''Killing the Moscs.''  His interest in observing and studying wildlife resulted in a book about [[Jim Corbett]], a big-game hunter and expert on man-eating tigers.

Many of Booth's works were linked to the British imperial past in China, Hong Kong and Central Asia. Booth was also fond of the United States, where he had many poet friends, and of Italy, which features in many of his later poems and in his novel ''A Very Private Gentleman'' (1990).

Booth's novel ''Industry of Souls'' was shortlisted for the 1998 [[Booker Prize]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martin Booth {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/martin-booth |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}}</ref>

{{quote box|width=351px|salign=right|align=right|If truth be told, I never really left Hong Kong<ref name="miller"/>}}
Booth died of cancer in [[Devon]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brownjohn |first=Alan |date=2004-02-14 |title=Martin Booth |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/feb/14/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |access-date=2024-04-11 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> in 2004, shortly after completing ''Gweilo,'' a memoir of his Hong Kong childhood written for his own children.<ref name="miller"/>

The 2010 film ''[[The American (2010 film)|The American]]'', starring [[George Clooney]], was based on his novel ''A Very Private Gentleman.''<ref>Scott Macaulay (2 September 2010). [http://filminfocus.com/article/meet_martin_booth_the_novelist_behind_the_american "Meet Martin Booth, the Novelist behind ''The American''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711001643/http://filminfocus.com/article/meet_martin_booth_the_novelist_behind_the_american |date=11 July 2011 }}, ''focusonfilm.com''</ref>

Three Booth's novels have been translated into French : ''Gweilo'', ''Music on the Bamboo Radio'' and ''The American''.<ref>[https://www.babelio.com/auteur/Martin-Booth/107152/bibliographie BIBLIOGRAPHIE : LIVRES DE MARTIN BOOTH]</ref>