Leon Comber has shared the background of Han Suyin’s work and I want to add that Han Suyin herself was unafraid to articulate her own views and perceptions of what she both heard and saw first hand. As a medical doctor, all kinds of injured and sick came to see her—both from the communists and the establishment. With her sad passing recently, I am sure more and more direct evidence by way of notes, diaries and letters will surface to both augment and dispute some of the interpretations of her book. We do know, of course, that in the main, the establishment was not happy with the way Han Suyin portrayed the treatment and handling of difficult issues such as justice and equality. It is clear that she tended to side with the underdogs—in this case those fighting on behalf of the people; i.e. mainly the communists). My Uncle Bill later worked at a seaman’s mission known as Connell House. Situated on Anson Road in Singapore, Connell House was where members of the merchant navy (mostly British and Australian) stayed when in transit or on leave. At the house bar much went on by way of gossip and rumour. Indeed, Leon Comber chatted there to my uncle a few times, exchanging memories of an era gone by. I know that when Mr Comber and I first met we did have occasion to talk about my late Uncle Bill (who also knew Han Suyin and had met her several times when she operated her Singapore clinic). Han Suyin did not endear herself either to the British or for that matter any of the ruling powers because she firmly believed in democracy and resented any attempt at coercion or suppression. At one point, given her wide-reading public (for she had one, especially after the grand success of the Hollywood movie Love Is A Many SplendoredThing, with Nat King Cole singing the theme song), even the Americans were very unhappy with her political views and positioning and did, for some time, ban her from entering the country. Such is the enormous power of the pen when it is mighty, and given Han Suyin’s no-nonsense and yet charming style (and there is much awaiting any scholar who needs a good title for literary research: The Style of Han Suyin’s Fiction) her pen is mighty. She writes in the kind of nonchalant manner that entices and then seduces to make complete the bond between writer and reader—a bond that most readers carry through life. This is quite an astonishing achievement; most readers of her books remain devoted and passionately speak about how reading her books made them rethink their own lives. I was in Dumaguete in the Philippines at a resort and lo and behold the owners of this resort had named their only child Suyin, in their adoration of our gifted author.