Episode 1

Poet Hannah Lowe reads from her memoir about growing up in 1980s Essex with her half-Chinese, half-black father, Chick.

Using a notebook found after his death plus letters and interviews with family, she recreates his childhood and young adult years in the decades before he met her mother.

So it's back to Jamaica, 1935: a young boy is repeatedly beaten by his Chinese father. Both man and boy are drawn to the throw of the dice.

Decades later, a young woman in Ilford mourns the death of her gambling father.

With the recreated and imagined sections of Chick’s life read by Colin Salmon.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters.

A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in July 2015.