Notes from an Even Smaller Island (20th Anniversary)

Neil Humphreys

Description

Knowing nothing of Singapore in the 1990s, a young Englishman, Neil Humphreys, arrives in the land of "air-conned" shopping centres and Lee Kuan Yew. From the aunties in the hawker centres to expats dressed as bananas, from Singlish to kiasuism, and from Singaporeans at home to Singaporeans abroad, Humphreys explores all aspects of Singaporean life, taking in the sights, dissecting the culture and illuminating each place and person with his perceptive and witty observations.Written by someone who is at once both insider and outsider, the book is a wonderfully funny and disarmingly honest portrait of Singapore and its people.That was the original synopsis. And a cult classic was born.First published in 2001, Notes from an Even Smaller Island became an extraordinary success, selling tens of thousands of copies. It popped up on the national bestseller several times over the years and launched Neil's stellar writing career.This 20th anniversary edition contains new material; Neil has gone back and re-evaluated his first book, looking at what he got right, what he definitely got wrong and updating readers on key characters, stories and crazy incidents. He also includes never-previously published photos to prove - once and for all - that every word of his irreverent work was true.The AuthorNeil Humphreys is one of Singapore's best-selling authors with 26 titles to his name. His works on the country - from Notes from an Even Smaller Island (2001) to Saving a Sexier Island: Notes from an Old Singapore (2015) - are among the most popular titles in the last 20 years. Writing as NJ Humphreys, he is also behind the highly popular Princess Incognito middle grade children's series. His illustrated Abbie Rose and the Magic Suitcase adventures are funny eco-adventures about a smart, feisty girl on a mission to save endangered animals. He is also a prolific crime fiction writer. His titles include Match Fixer (2010), Premier Leech (2011), Marina Bay Sins (2014), Rich Kill Poor Kill (2016) and Bloody Foreigners (2021).

Sujets

• Humour

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789815009903
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

What the media said about Notes from an Even Smaller Island
He pokes fun at Singaporeans... but rather than bristle at his observations, you are likely to twitch with mirth. The ribbing is always cushioned by good-natured quips often sprinkled with hilarious anecdotes.
- The Sunday Times
The book presents a warts and all view of the city-state and celebrates many of the things most often criticised.
- BBC World
A candid look at the idiosyncrasies of Singapore and Singaporeans.
- TODAY
It s a great insider s look at Singapore from an insider s point of view.
- Malaysia s Sunday Mail
Humphreys laugh-a-minute self-deprecating manner makes this book very entertaining... No punches pulled. Bravo!
- Malaysia s Sunday Star
Humphreys humorous take on Singapore is an entertaining read... It is hard not to smile while reading this book.
- Women s World
Blatant prejudices are chewed on, digested and spat out with an equal measure of candour and tongue-in-cheek.
- Singapore Seventeen
A thoroughly enjoyable read on the virtues (or hazards) of living in Singapore through the eyes of a 6 foot 4 inch Briton whose style is so disarmingly honest, you will laugh at the things you once considered the bane of existence... Decidedly Singaporean, distinctly British.
- Singapore FHM

What the readers said about Neil s other books
Neil Humphreys sheds a good humoured and tolerant light on Singaporeans... revealing his fondness for all our foibles. Give him honorary citizenship!
- Lim Kay Tong, actor
Whenever Singaporeans gripe about foreign talent crowding our shores, they always give Neil Humphreys an exemption, and with good reason. Not afraid to be critical, but also clearly affectionate about the people of our crazy little republic, Neil s work is always astute and filled with generous humour. Not say I say what, but Singapore can t be all bad if we managed to lure someone as talented as he is back.
- Colin Goh, author and film writer/director
We should do a Neil Humphreys Musical. It would be completely Singaporean, in Singlish, absolutely irreverent but at the heart of it, true. With so many Notes already written, all we need to do is to put them together and we ve got a hit musical on our hands. Double confirm!
- Hossan Leong, actor/director
I read what he wrote. I read what was written about him. Then I met him. He was all of what I thought he would be. And more. The Ang Moh who lived in Toa Payoh. The Ang Moh who wrote local stories. Of course the stories are coloured. With a different sensibility. But at long last we have reached a point where we have a foreign local writer, if there is ever such a thing... Someone with a perspective from within and without. Someone who may just connect this red dot with the world. In local and international colours.
- Daniel Yun, film director/producer
Most part Brit, generous portions of Singaporean and an all round hoot of an author, Neil is nothing less than a national treasure.
- Hamish Brown, veteran broadcaster
Neil Humphreys has that rare gift of telling non-Singaporeans what they would never in a million years otherwise know about our glorious island, and telling Singaporeans about what we think we already know about ourselves, and making us go, ****... I never thought about it that way!
- Adrian Pang, actor/producer
You think you got balls? This ang moh writer got bigger balls.
- Royston Tan, film writer/director

Text photographs Neil Humphreys
2022 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
Published in 2022 by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Name(s): Humphreys, Neil.
Title: Notes from an even smaller island / Neil Humphreys.
Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2021. | 20th anniversary edition.
Identifier(s): e-ISBN: 978 981 5009 90 3
Subject(s): LCSH: Singapore--Anecdotes. | Singapore--Humor.
Classification: DDC 959.57--dc23
Printed in Singapore
This one is for my best mate, Tracy, for always being my best mate.
Contents
Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Edition
Notes from an Even Smaller Island
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue: What Happened Next?
The Cover Story
About the Author
Introduction to the 20 th Anniversary Edition of Notes from an Even Smaller Island
I knew I had a naked landlady. If nothing else, I had a formidable tour de force of a Singaporean auntie, swinging her breasts at me on a Saturday afternoon. Think a couple of potato sacks hanging from a rope and go from there.
I did. I ran out of the kitchen.
Actually, I screamed. Then I ran out of the kitchen. Then I headed for my rented bedroom and locked the door. And then I started scribbling.
I had a terrifying landlady, fluent in three languages: Tamil, Malay and swearing. I also had something about a void-deck funeral that Singaporeans found amusing when I shared the story.
Plus, I had anecdotes involving my fledgling teaching career in a new country, funny stories about being a tall white man in Toa Payoh s heartlands in the 1990s and an amusing incident concerning a frog in a toilet bowl.
But did I really have enough for a book?
The general consensus within the Singapore media was, no, I didn t . I remember the eye rolls among fellow journalists when I suggested the idea.
Yeah, Neil, that s just what s missing in our lives. Another travelling ang moh telling us what we re doing right and wrong in our society. We re not a curious lab experiment for your inane musings.
I m paraphrasing, but only a little. With the benefit of hindsight, I d probably agree with the initial scepticism. Singapore didn t need another notes from a detached expat , then or now. I couldn t write one of those books if I tried.
In fact, it s only with time and distance that I ve realised why Notes from an Even Smaller Island had an advantage of sorts.
It s the culture shock.
There wasn t one.
I swapped one multiracial, working-class community in East London for another in Toa Payoh. That was it. Sure, there was fun to be had, mocking my fish out of water antics, ridiculing my dalliances with chopper-wielding hawkers and getting caught with my pants down (literally and far too often. I seem to have spent most of my early twenties taking my clothes off in Singaporean reservoirs.).
But the empathy was sincere because it was real. When I swapped my part-time job in the family s greasy spoon caf in East London for eating in Toa Payoh s hawker centres, I was as mystified at elderly cleaners being expected to clear my plate then as I am now.
So I punched up rather than punched down. I divided the chapters into social and economic issues, focusing on areas where I felt I might be able to adequately compare my working-class London with my working-class Singapore: education, arts, sport, politics, censorship, and the treatment of the elderly and marginalised communities, sprinkling the lot with unhinged taxi drivers and toilet-cleaning aunties mopping around me while I peed (just a note on that one. Aunties still mop around me while I m peeing. It s still weird. And I still think they do it for a giggle, so they can go back and mock the ang moh and his ikan bilis .).
Throughout 1999 and perhaps 2000, I spent my nights being shouted at for my apparent shortcomings as a sports reporter and my days banging out the first draft of this book.
I typed away on a desktop computer in a non-air-conditioned room of my three-room flat in Toa Payoh. In the movie Love Actually , Colin Firth s novelist wrote his books in a sun-kissed cottage in a timeless Mediterranean village. I wrote this book beneath an open window, where I d often find a passing neighbour staring back at me. She scared the shit out of me.
She was Vidal Sassoon, memorialised in these pages for stalking the common corridors of our block. No one knew where she actually lived. But her slippers could always be heard, scraping along the concrete, warning me of her forthcoming appearance at the front door.
Occasionally, though, she just appeared. I d look up from my computer, through the slats in the window, and she d be there, looking straight at me. Inevitably, I d stumble backwards and leap to my feet, which was always problematic, as I wore nothing but boxer shorts. Had a policeman intervened, my story would ve had mor