Monsoon Books, the Singapore-registered
award-winning independent publisher of English-language books and eBooks on
Asia, has opened an office in the UK for its editorial and marketing
teams.
Heading up the UK side is founder and publisher,
Philip Tatham who will commute between the offices in the UK and Singapore.
Monsoon Books publishes books with Asian themes by
authors from both East and West, and both new and established. Its list includes
a mix of literary and commercial fiction, and nonfiction - biography and
autobiography, true crime, food and drink, history, travelogues and current
affairs.
“Moving back to the UK and bringing my publishing
house with me was an opportunity I couldn’t resist,” says Tatham. “Having moved
to Singapore over twenty years ago, I’m delighted to be back home and ready to
introduce the wealth of writers Monsoon publishes into the UK market. I’m
particularly excited about our Spring titles which include Olivia & Sophia, a fictionalised Raffles biography with a
twist, the Kain Songket Mysteries, a No. 1 Ladies Detective
Agency-style series from Muslim Malaysia, and the Detective Hawksworth Trilogy,
a thrilling historical crime series that will make the reader think twice about
safe Singapore.”
Monsoon is now
based in Leicestershire, in the middle of England, a part of the UK with
historic links to Singapore. The area is home to several Royal Airforce bases, so
many local residents have parents who served in Singapore and Malaysia, and a surprising number of Monsoon’s now middle-aged neighbours were born
in British military hospitals in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The connections
even extend to food. Melton Mowbray pork pies are a Leicestershire speciality which
make an appearance in Out in the Midday
Sun: a history of the British in Malaya by Margaret Shennan, another of
Monsoon’s Spring titles. “The British
planters and military personnel in Malaya socialised in clubs,” says Tatham.
“In Out in the Midday Sun, a planter based
in Genuang in pre-war Malaya reveals
that ‘On
Club Nights there were usually two tables of Bridge mostly supplied by the
wives … Some folk used to go home after games on a Thursday but usually 15–20
would stay on and I would supply ‘Sausage and Mash’ or ‘Melton Mowbray Pie’
with plenty of good cheese – we had a name for giving good measure for both
eats and drinks at Genuang.’”
Burrough Court, where Monsoon now has its offices, was
once a grand country house and it was here that King Edward VIII first met American socialite
Wallis Simpson, for whom he later gave up the throne. The estate belonged to
Lord Furness, who developed a deep love for Africa and kept a zebra and giraffe
on the grounds. Lord Furness housed his private aeroplane on the estate and it
was this aeroplane that was commissioned by Prime Minister Chamberlain, a
familiar visitor to the house, to transport him on his historic trip to meet
with Adolf Hitler. The main house survived the war but was destroyed in a fire
shortly afterwards when a band of enthusiastic Canadian soldiers accidentally
burned the house down while attempting to blow up the sealed entrance to the
estate’s wine cellar.
They do love a good story at Monsoon Books!
