First Things

First memory. First going hitchhiking. First seeing my father angry. First shotgun. First poem. In First Things, Harry Ricketts chronicles his early life through the lens of ' firsts' : those moments that can hold their detail and potency across a lifetime. Set mostly in Hong Kong and Oxford, these bright fragments include the places, people, writers, encounters and obsessions that have shaped Ricketts' world, from his first friends and rivals to his first time being caned by a teacher and his f