Old Singapore [first edition]

Old Singapore provides a brief, vivid description of the social and cultural aspects of the city, culled from the impressions left behind by travellers in the region in the early years of the Settlement, It re-creates the sweep of events leading from the low-key, albeit dramatic, founding of Singapore by Raffles, the truly Renaissance figure who dominated the precepts and policy of British influence in Java and Malaya, and details the way of life of the polyglot peoples who came to inhabit the city-state: their habits, their customs, and their ideas, which made it a colourful, bustling, and thriving port. There are evocative sketches of the picturesque modes of transport of this bygone era, the planning of the city which has formed the basis for its present layout, monuments which have survived the test of time, and a vivid account of the force that breathed life into the old city; the ethnic Malays, the Chinese, the British, the Indians, the Arabs, and the host of others, who, grateful to the city that had given them their livelihood, invested it with their own colour and individuality. ix, 87 pp., 16 colour and 26 b&w plates, 2 maps, bibliography, index. A new/unread copy in original shrink-wrap Size: 20 x 14 cm.