The Nanson Series

Two of Singapore's living legends, in one room, telling stories most of us have only read about.

At the latest Nanson Book Talk, our CEO Steven Okun joined a conversation with Tommy Koh and Daljit Singh around their memoirs - two men whose careers trace almost the entire arc of modern Singapore, from the earliest days of independence to today.

The stories ranged from daily life nearly 70 years ago, to Lt Col Daljeet Singh's account of the fall of South Vietnam and its impact on Singapore, to Prof Tommy Koh's decades at the UN, the Singapore arts and US relations. 

What stayed with us was how personal the reflections became by the end. Tommy Koh closed with this: "As I approach the end of my life, my heart is filled with gratitude. I am grateful that I was born in Singapore... Our country may be small. It may have no natural resources. But it has an asset which no other country possesses, which is Singaporeans."