Scorpion on The Ceiling

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE 24th MARCH 2005

SALTIRE AWARD NOMINATED

Charles Martine arrived in Singapore in 1922 to work for the Borneo Company, one of the great UK-financed merchant venture companies of South East Asia. It was a golden era, with Singapore becoming one of the most successful multi-racial co-operatives that have ever been known.

Later on, Charles and his wife Pat were stationed in Penang, where their two daughters were born. In 1939, the family moved to Sarawak, ruled over by Vyner Brooke - the third and last of the legendary White Rajahs.

When the American Fleet was attacked in Pearl Harbor, Charles and their eldest daughter were trapped in Singapore. In Sarawak, Pat and their infant youngest daughter escaped from the advancing Japanese on foot through 140 miles of one of the world's most dangerous jungles. Reunited on Java, Pat and the children sailed to Australia. Charles returned to Singapore where, following the island's fall, he was interned in the notorious Changi Gaol.

As Communications Officer for Changi D-Block, Charles survived the brutal Japanese purge of the notorious Double Tenth.

Through family letters and diaries, contemporary accounts, and interviews, the author pays tribute to the extraordinary courage of his parents and their compatriots - European and Asian - who were caught up in tumultuous events far beyond their control. In doing so, he provides us with a remarkable insight into a vanished way of life.

Reviews:

"In August, Singapore will celebrate 60 years of liberation. It will probably be the last commemoration when there are people alive who witnessed these events. For many living in Scotland it will seem a distant celebration of a distant time. Martine shows us through his own family's eyes just how cruel war can be and, for many still living just how raw those memories still are." William Lyons, Scotland on Sunday

"They were a happy Scottish couple, living the colonial life in Borneo...until plunged into the hell of war with Japan. In his later years, Charles, like so many of his contemporaries, seldom spoke of his wartime experiences, other than occasionally to observe that better men than he had suffered more than him. No one who knew Charles Martine would have believed that for a second."Tom Kyle, Scottish Daily Mail

Roddy Martine's story of his parents' lives in the colonial Far East is an enthralling book through which a vanished age is brought to life.Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman