What is the magic of Singapore? Ever since Raffles transformed this virtually uninhabited island into a jewel in the imperial diadem, it has spelt adventure and wealth for immigrants and travellers. Raymond Flowers tells Singapore's story, writing about an age when the sea used to come up to the steps of the houses along Beach Road, when deaths by tiggers were two a week, when a cannon at Fort Canning Hill used to go off every morning to awaken the citizens, when secret societies controlled more than just alleys, when people dressed in topees and tutups used to foregather for Sunday afternoon curry tiffins. And then he moves on to a Singapore that writers like Conrad and Maugham saw: a bastion of the British Empire, but with its faults nonetheless. Always the background is the fabled Raffles Hotel, now the last living link with the past, an institution that embodies the spirit of elegant living. --Book Jacket.