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The city of Manila is uniquely significant to Philippine, Southeast Asian and world history. It played a key role in the rise of Western colonial mercantilism in Asia, the extinction of the Spanish Empire and the ascendancy of the USA to global imperial hegemony, amongst other events. This book examines British and American writing on the city, situating these representations within scholarship on empire, orientalism and US, Asian and European political history. Through analysis of novels, memoirs, travelogues and journalism written about Manila by Westerners since the early eighteenth century, Tom Sykes builds a picture of Western attitudes towards the city and the wider Philippines, and the mechanics by which these came to dominate the discourse. This study uncovers to what extent Western literary tropes and representational models have informed understandings of the Philippines, in the West and elsewhere, and the types of counter-narrative which have emerged in the Philippines in response to them.

'Singapore & Penang Street Food' shows the authentic taste of delicious street food in Malaysia and how the street food scene in Singapore has become more 'food court' nowadays.

This volume presents documents that roughly follow the chronology of Joseph Conrad's life and deliberately considers two documents that reveal surprising and important facts that Conrad had carefully concealed.

This remarkable account of Tim Severin's voyage to the Indonesian Archipelago in search of the island paradise that naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace had explored 140 years before him offers both the thrills of exotic adventure and the marvels of scientific discovery. In a replica of the boat that Wallace himself sailed to the Spice Islands and with Wallace's The Malay Archipelago as his guide, Severin travels to remote shores that still harbor such rare but fast-disappearing creatures as red birds of paradise, flying foxes, and bird-winged butterflies. Not only does he discover the now-endangered flora and fauna that Wallace recorded in his expeditions, he also pays due homage to his intrepid predecessor, the man who provided Darwin with the ideas and principles that changed forever the way we view nature and with him co-authored the theory of evolution.

A father (Tom) hears his son Richard say, “School is OK except I don’t like learning numbers or arithmetic.” After dinner, Tom sits with Richard and tells him a story of a kingdom long ago where the use of numbers is forbidden by King Kcaj and of the chaos that ensues because of it. As Tom’s story unfolds, he hopes to instill in Richard a sense of the importance of learning numbers, counting, and arithmetic along with other life lessons.

He escaped from Singapore's Changi prisoner of war camp to become one of Australia's great World War II guerrilla fighters. 'The way I look at it is this...When you're behind the line and get yourself into trouble, you've got to get your bloody self out irrespective of anybody else. That's why I like it.' Scottish-born but a Queenslander to the bone, Jock McLaren was a true Australian hero. As a prisoner he escaped twice, first from Changi and later from the infamous Sandakan POW camp in Borneo. After paddling a dugout canoe across open sea, he fought for two years with American-led Filipino guerrillas, his exploits so audacious the Japanese put a price on his head. At the helm of his 26-foot whaleboat, the Bastard, McLaren sailed brazenly into enemy-held harbours, wreaking havoc with his mortar and machine guns before heading back out to sea. In early 1945 he joined Australia's secretive Z Special Unit, parachuting into Borneo to carry out reconnaissance and organise anti-Japanese resistance ahead of Allied landings. He cheated death on numerous occasions and saved his own life by removing his appendix without anaesthetic, using 'two large dessert spoons' and a razor blade. Drawing on Allied and Japanese wartime documents, Bastard Behind the Lines brings the story of a courageous digger vividly to life and throws light on a rarely explored aspect of Australia's Pacific war. 'The horror and heroism of the Pacific war are evoked by Tom Gilling in a way that is vivid and compelling as well as multi-faceted.' – The Age 'Gilling has produced an engrossing book, vividly bringing to light disturbing facets of Australia's Pacific War . . . a sobering reminder of a horrific era that should never be forgotten. An extraordinary true tale.' —Newcastle Herald 'Not for the faint-hearted . . . This cloak and dagger real-life story will have you on the edge of your seat.' —The Chronicle

The Japanese attacked the Philippines and Malaysia without a declaration of war. America and Great Britain are now at war with Japan. The Japanese think of the American and British colonies and, further south, the Dutch possessions in the Netherlands East Indies, as the "Southern Resource Area." Possession of the rubber and tin of the Malay Peninsula, and the oil of the Netherlands East Indies, are the major war aims of the Empire of Japan. The Japanese attack in the air with overwhelming numbers, and the US Army Air Forces must evacuate its surviving heavy bombers and whatever personnel it can to Australia. When the Japanese reach south to the islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Java, the only thing any American airman in the Southwest Pacific - including Jack and Charlie Davis, survivors of the air fighting in the Philippines - can really do for the Allied war effort is buy time and kill the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Empire of Japan. Even if it means their own lives.