a review of Nicola's autobiography published in 2015

This brilliantly unconventional memoir brings a whole different take on being transgender. It is a candid story that breaks down complex issues but it is Nicola’s captivating humor that makes them so readable. There are laugh out loud moments, heart-wrenching ones too. When to tell prospective lovers, how to tell old friends? 

Back in the 80s and 90s Chase was a globe-trotting DJ who played exotic clubs in the Middle East and China. There was a decade-long stint as a radio host in Hong Kong, a music writer, and media consultant. However, through all this time she was a he. It was only after relocating to New York in 2007 that the real journey—and her gender transition—began.

There were nerve-racking trips on the subway, embarrassing wigs, and heels an inch from respectability. She gets thrown out of a strip club as a perceived threat to business, initiates her first bikini moment, and has a love match at the US Open Tennis Championships. Puberty happens for a renewed time in a different gender. She was a 16 year-old girl in her 40s. Strange new desires appeared, but so did bigotry, rejection and abuse.

Friends were both won and lost, but the biggest announcement was over a cup of tea: the excruciating moment of disclosure with her 80-year old mother. The devolution and rebuilding of that amazing relationship is one of the most enchanting and emotional threads of this book.

Beyond the practical matters of hair removal, underwear selection, or deciding which bathroom to use, Nicola’s story is a unique arc of discovery—inner and outer transformations, and how the world around her responded at each stage. It is about how gender is perceived, and what happens when that gender changes.

Tea and Transition is a story of love, the human spirit, and how one man became one woman.