Tall Tales and Misadventures of a Young WOG

This book of autobiographical short stories by the late Goh Poh Seng, the Westernised Oriental Gentleman or Wog of the title, describes his adventures as a young Asian student in the Ireland of the 1950s. Brought up in post-war Kuala Lumpur, the impressionable young man found himself transported to a totally different milieu and culture. The stories describe his voyage to Europe, a sojourn in an Asian student hostel, and the shock of life as a boarder in a Catholic school. They continue with his early awakening to the possibility of becoming a writer, and his embrace of the cultural and literary pleasures of Dublin. Along the way he encountered a colourful tapestry of characters, among them a member of the Anglo-Irish gentry, the suave and charming Tom-Pierre from the West Indies, and the much-loved Irish poet Paddy Kavanagh.