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The Singapore Arts Festival is right around the corner again! This year, the National Arts Council and NLB Public Libraries are working together to bring you a series of Festival Chats, where you can learn more about the shows that will be featuring in Singapore Arts Festival 2010.

So join us for this series of informative chats and previews of the upcoming Singapore Arts Festival programmes. Come and hear the artists’ journey in art making.

The schedule:

[i]
Date: Sat 27 Mar
Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm
Topic: Artists Reflections – Revisiting Local Creations
A panel of local artists will share their creation process. Guest speakers include Haresh Sharma, Resident Playwright, The Necessary Stage and Jeremiah Choy, Director/Producer.
Venue: Ang Mo Kio Public Library

[ii]
Date: Sat 24 April
Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm
Topic: Contemporary Performances with a Purpose?
The panel will share about the practice of issues/themes driven performance. Guest speakers include Joyce Koh, Composer/Musician/Educator.
Venue: Marine Parade Public Library

[iii]
Date: Sat 15 May
Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm
Topic: International Collaborations
A panel of both international and local artists will share their experiences working internationally. Guest speakers include Haris Pasovic, Director, East West Theatre Company, Jörg Karrenbauer, Director of Cargo Kuala Lumpur – Singapore and Ho Tzu Nyen, Visual Artist/Film Maker/Theatre Director.
Venue: Queenstown Public Library

[iv]
Date: Sat 29 May
Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm
Topic: Introduction to Dance Film
What is dance film? Hear the panel share about the challenges of choreography and filming the moving image. Guest speakers include Yuni Hadi & Daniel Kok, Guest Curators, Singapore Arts Festival, Dance Film Series.
Venue: library@esplanade

[v]
Date: Sat 12 Jun
Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm
Topic: The Festival So Far… Have Your Say!
Come meet the Singapore Arts Festival team and share with us your festival experience. Moderated by Ms. Audrey Wong, Nominated Member of Parliament.
Venue: Tampines Regional Library

[vi]
Date: Sat 26 Jun
Time: 3.00 – 4.30pm
Topic: Singapore Arts Festival 2011 – A Preview
Come hear Mr. Low Kee Hong, General Manager of the Singapore Arts Festival share highlights of the 2011 festival.
Venue: Central Public Library

Click here to download a copy of the schedule (right click and save as).

Bespoke : Savile Row ripped and smoothed
Richard Anderson
London : Simon & Schuster, 2009.
687.04409421 AND

Savile Row – the very name conjures a world of discrete luxury, the very best in suiting that money, and good taste, can buy. Nowadays, the starting price for a genuine bespoke Savile Row suit runs £3500 and upwards. I wouldn’t really know of course – it’s a little out of my income bracket.

But Richard Anderson has intimate knowledge of this rarified world of high-end clothiers. He started his working life in Huntsman, one of the most celebrated (and expensive) houses on Savile Row, as a lowly apprentice, at the ripe age of 17, in 1982. His apprenticeship would last an atonishing 17 years, before he becomes a “cutter” or pattern maker at the age of 34, the youngest in the venerable firm’s 150-year.

You might imagine that a memoir on men’s jackets and trousers, of riding britches, of darts and vents, might be impossibly dreary. But Richard has a good eye for character and detail, and he recounts his experiences and stories with warmth and good humour. What comes through as well is a deep familiarity with the craft, its traditions, lore and history.

For example, the term “bespoke” refers to how the customer has selected the fabric for his clothing – he has “spoken” for it. Many of these Savile Row firms started as military tailors, and each British regiment had specific styles and requirements. These later translated to civilian clothing, and over time, certain houses became associated with a certain style of tailoring.

Savile Row is of course, tied to the rich, famous and fabulously dressed, and not just men. Katharine Hepburn was a client, and she used to wear her pants 3 sizes too large, just to achieve the billowy effect. Once, after a particularly difficult fitting session, she buys a cashmere jumper for one of the tailors. During Hollywood’s Golden Age, practically the entire Who Who’s list were clients. But as Anderson notes, servicing the high and mighty could be a roller-coaster experience:

“When they liked what they saw, they charmed you to the moon. When they did not, they became brutal.”

The book has plenty of examples of both.

Behind the glamour, there is always the grit, and the book has plenty of that too. During WW II, before Anderson’s time, apprentices started work at 14. After the war, tailors assigned to the American market could be away from home as much as 6 months in a year. And the process of learning the craft was just as challenging, fraught and brutal – the weak and unworthy were weeded out.

Through the book, the reader learns about the painstaking and exacting detail, knowledge, and skill needed to produce a Huntsman suit, which accounts for its jaw-dropping price tag. And for those who can afford it, the quality, fit and finish of a perfectly-fitting bespoke suit commands the allegiance and loyalty of its customers.

~ Contributed by Nur Hakim Low, Librarian

Have you read these books? Do you have something else to recommend?
Post your comments, or send a longer book review to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Dear all,

We are discussing poems by Rabindranath Tagore from his Gitanjali collection (“Songs of Offerings”). 

The details:

Date/Time:  Friday 5.00pm, 26 February 2010
Venue:  The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Facilitator:  Ms Nasreen Ramnath

About the author:  Tagore (1861-1941) had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and for India, especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
(Taken from:   nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/tagore-bio.html) 

Please refer to the website on his poems and choose some of them to be discussed at our meeting.

www.schoolofwisdom.com/gitanjali.html

Please send an email to soon_huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg  if you wish to participate.
With best regards,

Soon Huat
Heartlands Book Club
Brought to you by Adults and Young People Services

Dick Francis, whose full was Richard Stanley Francis, was of Britain’s most successful post-war authors. His 42 crime novels had sold over 60 million copies in over 35 languages.

But he lived an equally colourful life. Born into a family of farming gentry and horsemen, he showed an early aptitude for horse riding. His education was an uninspired affair, and he left school at 15. During the Second World War, he served first as a mechanic, and then later as a pilot, though he never saw combat. Apparently, his lack of education resulted in him having difficulties with navigation.

After the war, he became a jockey, and his trim physique, along with his horsemanship, saw becoming a champion horse rider. He was champion jockey for the 1954-1955 season, and in 1956, achieved a moment of notoriety when his horse, which belonged to the Queen Mother, suddenly pulled up short 50 yards from the finish, even though it was leading. In 1957, he was released from service by the Queen Mother, a moment he has described as traumatic.

In 1962 he released his first novel, Dead Cert, and it was an instant success. From the start, his writing style would feature the lean, spare style reminscent of American noir writers such as Raymond Chandler, something not often seen in British writing. The sophistication and polish of the writing had led some to conclude over the years, that it was not Francis who wrote the novels, but his wife, Mary Brenchley, who was a well-educated woman with a degree in English and Frenc Literature. It is an argument that has never been conclusively proven or debunked.

(Biographical source, The Guardian)

Some works by Dick Francis:

Dead Heat by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

London : Michael Joseph, 2007.
Call No.: FRA -[TH]

Under orders / Dick Francis

New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006.
Call No.: FRA -[TH]

Field of thirteen / Dick Francis

London : Michael Joseph, 1998.
Call No.: FRA -[TH]

Our first post on the late Mr. S. Rajaratnam was in 2006, Feb 23.

Singapore remembers him again, with this 2010 publication “The Singapore Lion: A Biography of S. Rajaratnam“, by Irene Ng.

Mr. S. Rajaratnam, one of Singapore’s founding fathers, was born in Sri Lanka on 25 February 1915.

He was a former journalist who held various portfolios throughout his political career. After co-founding the People’s Action Party (PAP), he was named Singapore’s first Foreign Minister after independence in 1965. He was also Singapore’s Second Deputy Prime Minister from 1980-1985, after which he became a Senior Minister.

In 1966, Rajaratnam together with the former minister Ong Pang Boon, composed the National Pledge with an emphasis on a united and multi-racial society.

Mr Rajaratnam passed away peacefully on 22 February 2006, at the age of 90.

Read more about his life and political career:

The Singapore Lion: A Biography of S. Rajaratnam
By Irene Ng
Call No: SING 327.59570092 NG

Dialogues with S. Rajaratnam, former Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office
Translated by Lee Seng Giap; edited by Ang Hwee Suan
Call No: R SING 320.95957 RAJ

S. Rajaratnam on Singapore: From Ideas to Reality
Edited by Kwa Chong Guan
Call No: SING 327.5957 S

Lee’s Lieutenants: Singapore’s Old Guard
Edited by Lam Peng Er and Kevin YL Tan
Call No: SING 320.95957 LEE

You can check the availability of our titles through NLB Searchplus, http://searchplus.pl.sg

Read more about S. Rajaratnam at Singapore Infopedia.
URL: http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_644_2005-01-10.html

Or look up “S. Rajaratnam” at newspapers.nl.sg.

[photo source: S Rajaratnam School of International Studies]

The writer, the controversial and reclusive author of the classic “Catcher in the Rye”, has died aged 91.

Born to comfortable middle-class circumstances, Salinger’s childhood and school education could generally be characterised as “indifferent”, and “failing to apply himself”. Apparently, it was only in 1938 or thereabouts, while taking night classes in Columbia, when he came under the mentorship of a gifted editor, that Salinger began to find his metier as a writer. He begun to write short stories, which were published in various magazines.

But war clouds were gathering in Europe, and young Salinger was to eventually serve as an intelligence officer in Europe, where the carnage of war may have led to a nervous breakdown in 1945-46. During this period he continued to write, and the seeds of what eventually became ‘Catcher in the Rye” were sown.

In 1951, the novel, his most ambitious work to date, was published, and it was an immediate sensation. An estimated 60 million copies have since been sold. Critics have compared Salinger’s work to a modern Huckleberry Finn, or maybe a Lewis Carroll of our time. The anti-hero of the novel, Holden Caufield - the confused, yet intensely self-aware outraged loner, is now a familiar archetype in our literary landscape.

Though Salinger was to continue to write short stories and novellas, “Catcher in the Rye” would become his defining work. And its long shadow seems to have caused him to seek out reclusiveness and obscurity. In his later years, he would be continually dogged by stories and rumours of strange and outlandish behaviour.

(References: The Guardian, JD Salinger obituary, and JD Salinger: from boy of war, to modern man of letters)

~ contributed by Nur Hakim Low, Librarian.

Dear friends,

Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince”, a seemingly simple book for children, has been recognised for its philosophical and metaphysical dialogue which deals with perceptions, perspectives and understanding. 

Join us for discussion on this book on:

Date/Time:  5.00pm, Friday, 29 January 2010
Venue:  The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Title of book:  The Little Prince by  Antoine De Saint-Exupery 
Call No.:  SAI
Facilitator:  Ms Clara Chua, retired teacher

About the book:  The book starts with the narrator, who is an airplane pilot, recollecting his favorite picture when he was a six-year-old boy. The picture was of a boa constrictor eating a large animal. He recalls how a boa constrictor cannot move after swallowing its prey, and must hibernate for the six months until its food has been digested. Fascinated by this story, he had drawn his first drawing, Drawing Number One, which showed a boa constrictor devouring an elephant. When he showed his picture to the elders he was surprised to see that they couldn’t make out what it was and were not frightened of it either as he had hoped they would be. They couldn’t understand why anyone would be frightened of a hat, which is what they interpreted the drawing to be. But his picture was not a hat but rather, a boa constrictor digesting an elephant…. 

(Source:  www.wisedude.com/books/little_prince1.htm

Please send email to: soon_huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg if you wish to participate.

Yours sincerely,
Kweh Soon Huat (Mr)
Librarian
Heartlands Book Club
Brought to you by the Adults and Young People Services

Emily of Emerald Hill
by Stella Kon
Singapore : Raffles, c2000.
(All Rights Reserved)

For item availability, please check here.

I just finished reading the play Emily of Emerald Hill. I picked it up ‘cos I was intrigued by Stella Kon when I heard her speak at the Breakfast Club at NLB this past weekend — she seemed so layered and full of vigour, and I wanted to see what the play was all about.  

Emily of Emerald Hill is the most well-known of Stella’s works.  She won the National Playwriting Compeition in 1979, 1982 and 1985 (after which they promptly discontinued the competition), but ironically the play was produced in Malaysia first, leading her to make this snarky and hilarious comment when Singapore finally comissioned it to be produced the following year (1986), possibly out of sheer embarrassment:

“I am delighted that Emily of Emerald Hill has now been brought to the stage. Until it was, I could fairly well claim to be Singapore’s greatest never-produced playwright… Some years ago, I wrote The Bridge, a play with eighteen people in the cast — it had been meant for production by a drug addicts’  rehabilitation centre,  and was tailored to what they could provide.  And the producer said the cast was too big.  Then I wrote The Trial with a cast of twelve, which was well within the limits set by the Ministry of Culture, but still the producers said, “Very interesting, but cast too big.”  So I went and wrote Emily with a cast of ONE.” (Le Blond, 1986, 115).

Heh. So Emily is a monologue by a Peranakan Singaporean.  It’s her life story — a story of power and loss.  At first, I wasn’t that impressed.  It seemed like Emily was an anachronism that belonged squarely in the 80s.  She sounded like a middle-class tai tai, someone alienated from me.  Yet, as the story went on, something sad in Emily reached out to me.  Maybe I’m just a sucker for capable and lonely old women, but I felt sorry for her, especially at the end of the play.  

This play captures a specific period in Singapore’s history — a period of modernisation and rapid change.  I don’t know if younger readers will be able to relate to this period in Singapore’s history, but if it is true that this generation also feels that it is in a place of “rapid change”, then perhaps there is something in there that will make sense.

~ Contributed by Li Ern-Goh

Would you like to send us your contribution?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Access library services without leaving your Facebook space!

Library services are now available on Facebook through a trial application called the NLB myLibrary application.

This application allows you to:
 - Check your account
 - Renew and reserve items
 - Keep up to date with our new arrivals, latest events and blogs

Share any library related resources with your friends and publish them as recommendations, or simply save them to your personal Facebook space.

Read more about the application here.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continuous support and participation making the Heartlands Book Club a very active club.  Yes we will be 5 years in existence in 2010 and planning a birthday bash in August.  Starting from 2010, our book discussions will start at 5.00pm, instead of 4.00pm, on the last Friday of every month.  This is the resulf of feedback from members who want to join us but the old timing was too rush for some.  Hence 5.00pm in 2010 onwards it will be

To kick off  the New Year discussion,  our bookclub is honoured to have Boey Kim Cheng to drop in to our book club in January.  Here are the details:

Datre/Time:  5.00pm, Thursday 7 January 2010
Venue:  The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Title of book:  Between Stations by Boey Kim Cheng.  Call No.:  SING  S821 BOE
Facilitator:  Mr Kweh Soon Huat, Librarian

About the author: Dr Boey Kim Cheng has published four collections of poems – Somewhere-Bound (1989), Another Place (1992), Days of No Name (1995), After the Fire (2006)  – and a book of essays entitled Between Stations. He was born in Singapore in 1965 and emigrated to Australia in 1997. He lives in Sydney and teaches at the University of Newcastle. Awards won:
Awards
1992 : NBDCS Book Award for Poetry for Somewhere-bound
1994 : NBDCS Highly Commended Work for Poetry for Another Place
1995 : Merit Award Winner for the Singapore Literature Prize for Days of No Name
1996 : National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature
1999 : Third Annual Inner City Life Literary Competition, First Prize for Poetry (New South Wales, Australia)

About the book: Between Stations traces Boey’s travels through India, China, Egypt and Morocco. In each place he visits, the cosmopolitan mix of peoples, the markets and crossroads, the overlays of history and religion, remind him of old Singapore and of his gambler father, who would return after long absences to walk with him down the vanished arcades and alleys, past the shophouses and hawkers’ stalls. Boey’s essays capture a historic moment in the modernisation of the Asian city; they chronicle the break-up and the resilience of the family (Taken from publisher’s website  http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/).

Please send an email to soon_huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg  if you wish to participate.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

With best regards

Kweh Soon Huat (Mr)
Librarian
Heartlands Book Club
Brought to you by the Adults and Young People’s Services