Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends around the world who have enjoyed my books and blogs about Singapore and Malaya. It's been lovely hearing from you all over the years, all with similar memories to my own of our idyllic times spent in Singapore and Malaya.
I haven't added much to my blog in the last year but hope to write a lot more in 2014.
I've had lots of books to compile for various publishers over the last year so that's kept me very busy. Next year will see three books all about the First World War and one about the 1960s. I hope to write a lot more about Singapore sometime in the future.
Thanks to everyone for their support, it's been lovely to hear from you all. Best wishes for Christmas and for 2014!

Noel Harrison

I was sorry to read about the death of Noel Harrison recently. For many, he will be remembered fondly for his record 'Windmills of the Mind' but for me, he is best remembered for his role as Mark Slate in The Girl From Uncle. When the programme was first shown, I was 5 years old and living in Jalan Wijaya, Johore Bahru, Malaya. We all loved The Man From Uncle which had started two years earlier and loved anything that was connected to the show, so when the spin-off series began, we all made sure we watched it. The show was broadcast for a year and also starred Stefanie Powers as

April Dancer. Although the show is almost forgotten nowadays, hearing the theme or seeing clips from the programme instantly transports me back to my boyhood, staying in on a hot day, making sure I didn't miss it. Of course, we all really wanted to be Napoleon Solo or Ilya Kuryakin from The Man From Uncle and perhaps The Girl From Uncle wasn't quite as popular but it will always bring back happy memories for me.

Toys from Singapore and Malaya

It's a long time since I last updated my blog but I hope to add a lot more entries in the future.
I wonder how many toys people still have from their time in Singapore and Malaya in the 1960s? The only ones that I can think of are my Batmobile, Man From Uncle 'Thrushbuster' and Corgi James Bond DB5. I remember being taken to the Naval base cinema to see Goldfinger. I must have been about 4 years old back then. I never ever saw the end of a film because I always fell asleep! All kids had to have James Bond's car from the movie and I didn't know anyone who didn't have one. It was the same with the Batmobile. We all watched the show starring Adam West and Burt Ward and re-enacted the scenes in our garden. Anything featuring Batman was much sought after and everyone had to have a Batmobile. The spy show The Man From Uncle had the same following and everyone had to have their car, the 'Thrushbuster'. I remember being on holiday at Sandycroft in Penang and Alan and me hassled my parents for more pocket money so that we could buy the car from a small stall there. I've still got them all today although a bit knocked about and worse for wear. They were part of my childhood and a memory of our time in Singapore and Malaya and I would never get rid of them.