Singapore: The Battle That Changed the Wo

by James Leasor

A fine copy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

James Leasor was a prolific British author, who wrote historical books and thrillers. A number of Leasor's works were made into films, including his 1978 book, Boarding Party, about an incident from the Second World War that until that time was secret, was turned into a film, "The Sea Wolves", starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.

Thomas James Leasor was born at Erith, Kent, on 20th December 1923 and educated at the City of London School. On leaving school, whilst waiting to join the army, he had his first foray into journalism, as a cub scout reporter for the Kent Messenger.
He volunteered for the Army in World War 2, as soon as he was old enough. He was commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment and served in Burma with the Lincolnshire Regiment.

After the war he went up to Oriel College, Oxford, to read English. There he edited the Isis magazine, before joining the Daily Express. He became a full-time author in the 1960s. He also ghosted a number of autobiographies for subjects as diverse as the Duke of Windsor, King Zog of Albania, the actors Kenneth More and Jack Hawkins and Rats, a Jack Russell terrier that served with the British Army in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

He lived for his last 40 years at Swallowcliffe Manor, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. He died on 10th September 2007 and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church, Swallowcliffe.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a long, repetitive thesis that essentially argues that the humiliating British defeat to the Japanese in Singapore showed the "asiatics" that they weren't inferior to the whites and could stand up to them, this emboldening them to seek their independence which led to the downfall of the British empire.

This is an important and often overlooked chapter of WW2 because the campaign in the Pacific seems to get less attention in general, but also specifically because (as is pointed out in this book) the Japanese attacked Singapore (and others) at the same time as Pearl Harbor, it is overshadowed by that. I did learn a lot about the British government's lack of preparedness for an attack on Singapore and their reluctance to fund any preparations. However, this book was difficult to get through and poorly written. It was repetitive and rambling, with long offshoots about topics only tenuously connected to Singapore. The last chapter ends with the British unconditional surrender. There is a long postscript that I thought would sum up the occupation and eventual liberation of Singapore, but no, it is about Burma, the POWs in Hong Kong, and the liberation of Hong Kong and reaffirmation of British rule...in Hong Kong.

The beginning of the book too is poorly written, jumping around in time and space and going over the life story of seemingly every white man that stepped foot in the area.

In summary, while I learned a lot, I will be looking for another book that presents the information better.