Rogue Raider
The tale of Captain Lauterbach and the Singapore Mutiny
by Nigel Barley
It is the First World War and Julius Lauterbach is a German prisoner of war in the old Tanglin barracks of Singapore. He is also a braggart, a womaniser and a heavy drinker and through his bored fantasies he unwittingly triggers a mutiny by Muslim troops of the British garrison and so throws the whole course of the war in doubt. The British lose control of the city, its European inhabitants flee to the ships in the harbour and it is only with the help of Japanese marines that the Empire is saved.
Rogue Raider is the adventure story of how one ship, the Emden, tied up the navies of four nations and how one man eluded their agents in a desperate yet hilarious attempt to regain his native land. It is fictionalised history but a true history that was deliberately suppressed by the authorities of the time as too embarrassing and dangerous to be known. Revealed here, it brings vividly to life the Southeast Asia of the period, its sights, its sounds and its rich mix of peoples. And through it an unwilling participant in the war becomes an accidental hero.
Boy, am I glad I won a free copy of the title from Monsoon Books in Singapore.
Now to find the time to read and review it.
To win a book, do check out: http://www.monsoonbooks.com.sg/freestuff.html
2 comments:
NurBaiti.. thanks for visiting and for the kind words re: "the accident". Yup, we're all disappointed at the turn of events. Oh well..
I will look forward to a book review. This monsoon books is quite progressive and deserve more support. How come we don't have home grown publishing houses like that? There's a wealth of material --old and new I'm sure.. just waiting to be properly translated, just like Max Lane's treatment of Ananta Pramoedya Toer's books, for example.
Err me going green is an oxymoron, Sis. I admit as a driller, I am the cause of the destruction of the fragile environment!
Take care and Best Wishes!
mat salo, eagerly waiting for the book to arrive in my mail box before I can read and review it.
That's a good question about the dearth of progressive publishers here.
Apart from a few which I can't recall off hand at the moment, perhaps you should start one, considering your writing skills and using only recycled paper - as a way of atoning for your sins towards mother nature, haha ...
Take care and best wishes to you too!
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