Experience Singapore Literature

What are you currently reading?
I am re-reading the book S. Rajaratnam: The Prophetic and the Political which presents a selection of his speeches and writings.  It is edited by Chan Heng Chee and Obaid ul Haq. I have just completed writing the first volume of Rajaratnam’s biography, The Singapore Lion, and am now working on the second volume. This requires me to hit the refresh button in my brain! Re-reading his speeches from various sources is part of that process.

How many books do you currently own? Have you read them all?
Oh, hundreds and hundreds. I have a habit of buying more books than I can reasonably read at one time, so I am constantly expanding my bookshelves and building new ones in every nook and cranny. There is a stack of books I have meant to read but have yet to get to. I find that I do my best uninterrupted reading when away on a holiday, and always travel with a book or two. Few things are more enjoyable than savouring a well-written book. In Singapore, my reading is often for research related to work, such as for Parliament speeches.

What’s unique about your own library?
My eclectic library has been transformed over the last five years. It used to be packed with books on philosophy and politics. Also novels. But since 2005, I have been immersing myself in biographies – of Lincoln, Churchill, Roosevelt, Mandela, Nehru, Mao, etc – because I was embarking on writing my first book, the biography of S Rajaratnam. I read to learn what worked in a biography and what didn’t, and what made a great biography. Then in 2007, I married Graham Berry, the former CEO of the Scottish Arts Council. He is a very literary man, and has a formidable collection of books. His library is now fused with mine and still growing rapidly. It is wonderful to be married to a man who also loves books and discussing them.

In the event of a fire (touch wood), what is/ are the book(s) that you will save?
I had the privilege of helping Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to edit his memoirs, The Singapore Story, and From Third World to First. He wrote inscriptions in the copies he gave me when they were first published. In the first, he wrote: “Many thanks for most helpful suggestions that improved my text.” In the second, he wrote: “To Irene Ng, whose skilful editing made this a more readable book.” MM Lee was very gracious in writing these words, which made these two books especially precious to me.

Taken in 2006, at the University of Edinburgh when Irene was awarded the Honorary Professorial Fellowship

Born in Penang, Malaysia, Irene Ng came to Singapore to further her studies in 1980. She is now a Singaporean. She studied sociology, English language and philosophy at the National University of Singapore and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Social Science in 1986. She later obtained her Master of Science in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. In June 2006, she was awarded an Honorary Professorial Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. From 1986 to 2001, she worked as a journalist for the Singapore Press Holdings and was the senior political correspondent of The NewPaper and The Straits Times.

She has won journalism and writing awards. In 2001, she gave up journalism to join politics in Singapore. She currently serves as the Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC. After joining politics, she worked as director of programmes and senior research fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and later, as a director at National Trades Union Congress. In 2009, she returned to her passion for writing as a full-time writer. She is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,Singapore.