One More Chance: The Story of Benny Se Teo From Heroin Addict to Restaurant Boss
Colin Cheong
Singapore: Armour Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789814597425

By the time he was in Primary 5, Benny Se Teo was packing opium and running the packets to his father’s opium den in Chinatown. At 15, Benny had his first puff of pot, then one night, he bought a straw of heroin and his troubles truly began.

In jail after his umpteenth arrest, he began to bleed in his stomach and had to be rushed to hospital. In those hours, he remembered the Saviour he had accepted in 1980 at the first halfway house he had been sent to. And he remembered the pain he had caused his family - especially his mother. He decided to get clean and stay clean.

This is Benny’s story - of how his faith and the faith his friends placed in him, turned him from a hard-core heroin addict into a restaurant boss. But it is more than a story of a wasted youth - it is also a primer for young people who have the idealism and drive to start businesses that can help society and make the world a kinder place.

Descent Into Hell: The Fall of Singapore - Pudu and Changi - The Thai-Burma Railway
Peter Brune
Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2014
ISBN: 9781741145342

Descent into Hell is a scrupulously researched and groundbreaking account of one of the most traumatic calamities in Australian history - the Malayan Campaign, the fall of Singapore and the subsequent horrors of the Thai-Burma Railway. Unpicking the myths and legends of the war, Peter Brune goes to the heart of the Australian experience. He describes the shambolic planning by the British in Singapore and the failures and incompetence of some of the Australian command. He debunks the claims about Australian deserters in Singapore, and we learn of the black market in Changi and the beatings, torture and murder on the Thai-Burma Railway.

Here too are stories of the war's many heroes and villains: of officers who looked after their men and optimised their chances of survival, and others who looked after themselves at their men's expense; the heroes of battle who became ineffectual and lost in the camps and on the Railway, and the least liked and least respected battlefield officers who came to be great leaders. And then there are countless acts of kindness and decency performed by one POW for another in the most cruel of circumstances.

Impressive, compelling and rich in human spirit, Descent into Hell is an unprecedented chronicle by one of Australia's finest military historians.

Tan Siak Kew: Going Against the Grain
Fiona Tan
Singapore: World Scientific, 2014
ISBN: 9789814603072

"A scholar by inclination, a businessman by necessity, a diplomat by duty" - — those were the words chosen by a reporter in 1966 to describe Mr Tan Siak Kew. This description still remains relevant today, encompassing the multi-varied nature of Mr Tan's public life, who was a fervent supporter of education, President of the Chinese Chambers of Commerce for multiple terms, Singapore's first ambassador to Thailand, nominated member of the Legislative Assembly, community leader of the Teochew community and notable philanthropist of his time.

Despite his many contributions to Singapore, it is surprising that there has been so little secondary literature written of this trader who defies attempts at stereotyping.

Effectively bilingual, but still conscious of his responsibility to his community and the new nation which was about to be born, Tan was able to bridge between the Chinese-speaking and English-speaking community with his tact and non-partisan political stance.

Tan Siak Kew: Going Against The Grain is a timely biographical sketch which fill this historical lacuna, and tells the story of his public life through historical records, contemporaneous literature, and discussions with his contemporaries.

The Little Red Dot: Reflections of Foreign Ambassadors on Singapore, Volume III
Tommy Koh & Chang Li Lin (eds.)
Singapore: World Scientific, 2014
ISBN: 9789814612807

The first two volumes of The Little Red Dot series covered a wide range of views about Singapore's diplomacy by Singaporean diplomats. This new addition to the series will offer a complementary perspective of Singapore and its bilateral relations, through the eyes of past heads of missions from foreign countries who have served in Singapore or were responsible for Singapore.

The reader will be able to glean insights from the foreign diplomats who took an active role in getting to know Singapore, and at the same time, also worked hard to promote their respective countries' interests. As seen from their lens, the reader can learn more about what was unique about Singapore, what they learnt and what made their postings to Singapore memorable.

These candid reflections will allow Singaporean readers to understand how different elements of our country are often seen as a whole, and how that in turn contributes to the impressions that our foreign friends have of Singapore.

Often cited by the contributors are the success of Singapore's economic development, our cohesive multicultural and multi-religious society, our education system and opportunities for the young. A timely reminder that what Singaporeans take for granted are what others marvel at and appreciate.

The Invisible Force: Singapore Gurkhas
Chong Zi Liang & Zakaria Zainal
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810910990

The Gurkhas need no introduction, with their storied reputation built up over two centuries of battlefield exploits around the world. A unit of these Nepalese warriors have been serving Singapore for more than 65 years, yet precious little is known about them. Indeed, the Gurkha Contingent clashed with communists and militant unions in its early days and continues to protect the island state’s most important places and people even today.

Discover the untold story of the Singapore Gurkha through the eyes of different generations who carried the famed kukri blade: The rigorous, punishing training that forges elite soldiers; the family lives of these paramilitary policemen; and the lengths their sons go to follow in their fathers' footsteps.

Above all, The Invisible Force reveals the loyalty and gratitude the Gurkha has for Singapore, and the struggles he and his family face upon retirement, including an unresolved request for better employment terms.

Separation: A History
Christine Chia
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810913717

The sequel to The Law of Second Marriages, the best-selling and critically acclaimed poetry book by Christine. With "terrifying sparseness and intensity", as Cyril Wong observes, Christine threads together stories of the Separation between Singapore and Malaysia with the separation between her parents. Her searing vision, ambitious and intimate, opens up emotional spaces in unlikely places.

Intruder
Jerrold Yam
Singapore: Ethos Books
ISBN: 9789810913724

At home with loneliness and passing encounters, can we be familiar with another or even ourselves? Does love outweigh the uncertainty of its memory? In his third and latest collection, award-winning poet Jerrold Yam ushers us into a traveller's world through sensitive and enquiring eyes, navigating a landscape of flitting figures, thoughts and emotions.

Informed by expansive travel across Asia and Europe, Yam's poetry is as varied as his journey, exploring geysers, horse riding and Picasso, while building on his preoccupations with family, sensuality and displacement. His poems make fresh the contradictions of young adulthood, its heady mix of determined restlessness, bold insecurities, desire for intimacy and fear of commitment. In his unflinchingly honest treatment of these themes, Yam exhibits new range and complexity as he describes a shifting terrain, where moving on is as difficult as letting go.

Above all, Intruder is an attempt to make sense of the impermanent structures that hold up one’s life. Home, like love, may be a fiction that we must resist claiming for our own. After all, can we—and should we—be more than intruders?

Raffles and Hastings: Private Exchanges Behind the Founding of Singapore
John Bastin
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2014
ISBN: 9789814561440

The founding of Singapore has typically been attributed to the strategic genius of one man, Stamford Raffles. Frequently overlooked is the part played by his superior in the East India Company, the Marquess of Hastings. It was Hastings who, as Governor-General of India, made the fateful decision to establish a British trading post at the southern entrance of the Malacca Straits, and once this was executed with great daring by Raffles in early 1819, it was Hastings again who supported the retention of Singapore against opposition from all quarters.

This book provides an intimate account of Singapore's founding by drawing on the personal correspondence between these two men, which they maintained separately from their official exchanges. Published here for the first time, these private letters reveal at first-hand the challenges that Raffles and Hastings faced in manoeuvring within the Dutch-dominated East Indies. Just as significantly, they reveal the complex relationship between the two men – evolving from mutual suspicion at the outset to cooperation and admiration, but nonetheless peppered throughout with backbiting, hidden agendas and the clash of personal ambitions.

Historian John Bastin brings rigorous scholarship to bear on this work, at the same time presenting it in a clear, readable style that will engage specialist and general readers alike.