I wrote about growing up in one of these beautiful houses in my childhood memoir Over the Top with Jim, but it wasn't until I travelled overseas to Hong Kong with my tennis playing mate Ken Fletcher, and then on to China and Russia and Europe and London where I worked as a reporter, and then to Vietnam as a war correspondent, did I realise how precious they are. Since I got back to Brisbane, I've written lots of articles about how beautiful these houses are, and how they should be preserved. They are an endangered species: knocked down to make way for apartments.

So there are comments on this in "Spies Like Us" and in my new Fletch book out on Oct 1 2008.

Kenny Fletcher got around the world like an international spy.

Here he is in Hong Kong with his Aussie mate, tennis player Barry Brennan from Melbourne and our Hong Kong friend Spenser.

















In Hong Kong in 1965 Kenny was  the King of the world.





















Kenny and yet another girl at the French Open. The scoreboard shows Kenny winning the men's doubles with the legendary Roy Emerson, and winning the mixed as well.