Sweet Mandarin was just a wonderful book which I could not put down. It just gripped me from beginning to end and I was transported to a new world, so different from my life. The writer, Helen Tse tells us about her amazing grandma, and mother, and how they ended up in the UK opening restaurants, having originated from Guangzhou, China. Her descriptions of food were excellent - I was starving at the end of the book. It was also a very brave book - in that Helen told a story about many taboo subject matters and probably more taboo in Chinese society. I must admit that our book club really enjoyed this book, talking about it and it brought us closer as a group - we shared our experiences of how we ended up in our respective countries, our roots, our dreams and our families. I would highly recommend this book for other bookclubs.