Tales from the Tiger's Den: An Oral History of Foreigners in the Far East 1920-2020

Stuart Lloyd set out on an immensely important and entertaining undertaking -- to capture the colourful lives of expats and foreigners who were in parts of Asia, typically at a turbulent and transformational part of that country's history.For example, a White Russian in swinging Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s.A Frenchwoman who lived in Indochina (Vietnam) who was evacuated (twice) as the French were defeated.A Czechoslovakian couple who witnessed partition in India in the 1940s.An American GI who was on Okinawa during the kamikaze bombings and later escaped from Communist China.A German couple who lived it up in Bangkok after the war, and saw the Dutch exported from Indonesia.British traders who worked through Malaya's independence to enjoy the new Malaysia and Singapore emerging.An American who was a truck driver and crocodile hunter in the Philippines.A British tea trading family caught up in a Tamil Tiger attack in Sri Lanka.An East End boy caught up in the horrors of building the Thai Burma Death Railway as a POW.A Christian missionary who witnessed political uprisings in the Philippines plus other adventures in Papua New Guinea, Burma and Vietnam.A British ambassador who was evacuated from Japan during the War, and had death threats during the Burmese junta.Plus many more. With dozens of amazing, often graphic photographs from private albums.Stuart captured these valuable interviews on his travels around the region over a period of 12 years, forming an insightful collection of memories and moments, as seen by Westerners in the Orient. Many of these interviewees have since passed away, serving only to make these reminiscences even more valuable. Because those times can never be repeated nor relived.The spectrum of Tiger's Den is immense, chronologically, geographically, and experientially. From the days when it took several days and multiple stops to fly out to Asia (if you weren't aboard a steamship, that is). Or when it took several days to place a phone call to London from Singapore. From bootstrappers to ambassadors. It covers a broad palette, as though you were reading The Year of LIving Dangerously, The Quiet American, The Honourable Schoolboy, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and several Somerset Maugham books. The difference is that these are the real people who saw and lived through the real events. And now they tell it as it was, in their own personal voice, one chapter per subject so you can really feel their story and the amazing times they lived in and through.A 100 year period that is full of seismic shifts as Asia went from colonial to post-colonial to being the progressive growth centre of the world today. (Approx 450 pages including around 50 photo pages)