The Singapore Grip

'For a while he watched the butterflies which still swooped and fluttered in this little glade, impervious to the bombs that had fallen round about.'

1939: Walter Blackett, ruthless rubber merchant, is head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. And his family's prosperous world of tennis parties, cocktails and deferential servants seems unchanging. No one suspects it - but this world is poised on the edge of the abyss. This is the eve of the Fall of Singapore.

A love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life, The Singapore Grip is a modern classic from a Booker prize-winning author.

'A brilliant, complex, richly absurd and melancholy monument to the follies and splendours of Empire' Observer

“One of the most outstanding novelists of his generation - Spectator Brilliant, richly absurd, melancholy - Observer Enjoyable on many different levels - Sunday Times A narrative of exceptional imagination and scope - Newsweek A fine piece of work, informative, funny tragic. One of those novels that present a whole world for the reader to inhabit - Margaret Drabble No writer has swallowed all of Singapore with the verve and wit of the late J.G. Farrell - Time His brilliant of style places him beside such masters of the modern novel as Patrick White and Saul Bellow - Olivia Manning”

His brilliance of style places him beside such masters of the modern novel as Patrick White and Saul Bellow - Olivia Manning

One of the most outstanding novelists of his generation - SPECTATOR

A fine piece of work, solid, informative, funny, tragic, one of those novels that presents a whole world for the reader to inhabit - Margaret Drabble

J.G. Farrell was born in Liverpool in 1935 and spent a good deal of his life abroad, including periods in France and North America, and then settled in London where he wrote most of his novels.

Among his novels, TROUBLES won the Faber Memorial Prize in 1970 and the Lost Man Booker prize in 2010 and THE SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR won the Booker Prize in 1973.

In April 1979 he went to live in County Cork where only four months later he was drowned in a fishing accident.

NOW A MAJOR ITV DRAMA, THE SINGAPORE GRIP IS A MODERN CLASSIC FROM THE BOOKER-PRIZE WINNING J.G. FARRELL 'Brilliant, richly absurd, melancholy' Observer 'Enjoyable on many different levels' Sunday Times 'One of the most outstanding novelists of his generation' Spectator Singapore, 1939: Walter Blackett, ruthless rubber merchant, is head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. And his family's prosperous world of tennis parties, cocktails and deferential servants seems unchanging. No one suspects it - but this world is poised on the edge of the abyss. This is the eve of the Fall of Singapore.A love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life, The Singapore Grip is a modern classic. 'A narrative of exceptional imagination and scope' Newsweek 'A fine piece of work, informative, funny tragic. One of those novels that present a whole world for the reader to inhabit' Margaret Drabble ' No writer has swallowed all of Singapore with the verve and wit of the late J.G. Farrell' Time 'His brilliant of style places him beside such masters of the modern novel as Patrick White and Saul Bellow' Olivia Manning

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