''The Singapore Grip'' is a novel by

J. G. Farrell James Gordon Farrell (25 January 1935 – 11 August 1979) was an English-born novelist of Irish descent. He gained prominence for a series of novels known as "the Empire Trilogy" (''Troubles'', '' The Siege of Krishnapur'' and '' The Singapore G ...

. It was published in 1978, a year before his death. In 2015, ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

Akshita Nanda selected ''The Singapore Grip'' as one of ten classic Singapore novels. She wrote, "Neatly weaving in snappy, comic summaries of Singapore history as well as the commercial and cultural forces that shaped the trajectory of World War II in South-east Asia and China."

Synopsis

''The Singapore Grip'' is a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

book about events following Japan's entry into the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

by invading South East Asia and swiftly occupying

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. The story centres on a British family who control one of the colony's leading trading companies. The title derives from a slang phrase for a sexual technique also known as pompoir or Kabzah.

Reception

"A brilliant, complex, richly absurd and melancholy monument to the follies and splendours of Empire, " wrote Hilary Spurling for ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''. In 2015, Akshita Nanda, writing for ''

'', chose ten novels which describe Singapore in the past five decades, ''The Singapore Grip'' among their number.

Television adaptation

'' The Singapore Grip'' has been adapted as a series for Britain's ITV Television. The series debut was on

BBC First BBC First is an entertainment subscription television channel featuring comedy, crime, drama and film programming, originating from UK and mostly from the BBC. The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios. The channel began rolling ou ...

in Australia on 26 July 2020.

Luke Treadaway Luke Antony Newman Treadaway''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916-2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 10 September 1984) is a British actor and singer. He won an Olivier Award for Best Leading Actor for his performance as Chris ...

David Morrissey David Mark Joseph Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and filmmaker. Described by the British Film Institute as "one of the most versatile English actors of his generation", he is noted for the meticulous preparation and research h ...

and Elizabeth Tan star in the "epic and ambitious" TV adaptation of Booker Prize winner J.G. Farrell's 1978 novel.

References

External links

''The Singapore Grip''
from

New York Review Books Classics New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of ''The New York Review of Books''. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, N ...

1978 British novels British Empire in fiction Novels by J. G. Farrell Novels set in Singapore Postcolonial novels Novels set during World War II Weidenfeld & Nicolson books {{postcolonialism-stub