Forgotten Armies: Britain's Asian Empire and the War with Japan, Christopher Bayly and Tim HarperThe vast crescent of British ruled territories from India down to Singapore appeared in the early stages of the Second World War a massive asset in the war with Germany, providing huge quantities of soldiers and raw materials and key part of an impregnable global network denied to the Nazis. Within a few weeks in 1941 2 a Japanese invasion had destroyed all this, almost effortlessly taking the 'impregnable fortress' of Singapore with its 80,000 strong

tilt-up concrete panels

you may find it difficult to take that first step toward recovery

a Chinese mafia leader and a freelance agent for several governments

‘Like Louis Theroux channelling Margaret Atwood’ – New Statesman

at the age of thirty-five

themes of nature and nurture

that brilliantly explores the emotional fabric of Bret’s life at seventeen—sex and jealousy

cosmopolitanism

This remarkable book contains some of his finest writing

For this was the place where accidents happened

this is a play of the workings of tremendous passions and tribal ritual toward an inescapable tragic end

and discarded