The Extraordinary Amazing Incredible Unbelievable Walled City of Kowloon, written and illustrated by Fiona Hawthorne, tells a story of what used to be one of the most tightly packed places on Earth, the Kowloon Walled City.

The author, Hawthorne, grew up in Hong Kong and loved capturing the vibrant city scenes from busy buildings to people and children in her sketchbook. One of her favourite spots was an old street market in Kai Tak, right next to the Kowloon Walled City, which she described as ‘a patchwork of strange beauty’. It was a place she had never been to.

Hawthorne left Hong Kong with her family but returned six years later, visiting the Walled City for the first time with a friend. Within the walls, she spoke to people, drew them and the surrounding scenes, and by the end of it, she had sketches and drawings of a city that would soon no longer exist.

The book explores the history of the Kowloon Walled City, including its beginnings as an important Chinese fort, how exactly it earned its name of being a ‘walled city’, as well as its eventual demolition. But, more uniquely, it paints a picture of what regular life looked like within its walls, such as its toy manufacturing industry, planes flying directly overhead to their landing at Kai Tak airport, and how children used to jump around and play on the rooftops of the buildings.

The book is enriched with photographs accompanied by illustrations, sketchy in nature. The figures and drawings are mostly rendered in outlines, while others are in full colour. The scribbly and sometimes empty look of the drawings give a sense of a fleeting atmosphere, of a world that is fading away.

In the afterword, Hawthorne writes about how the narrative surrounding the Walled City following its demolition was increasingly negative, with the focus being on how it was dark and crowded, rather than the colour and community spirit she remembered from her visits.

She hopes to preserve and share the memory of the Walled City through this book, as it ‘truly was like nowhere else on Earth’.