SHAPE OF A POCKET By Jacqueline Ann Surin.(The Edge Communications, 202 pages)

LOCAL journalist Jacqueline Ann Surin has been working as one since 1994.

Surin gained an MA in journalism from Sussex University before studying in the United States under the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship.

Shape of a Pocket is mainly a collection of her newspaper articles published within the last three years.

The subject matter of the writer’s work falls into several categories that affect all Malaysians — democracy in Malaysia, the media, Islam in Malaysia, and marginalised groups, among them.
In her writing, Surin has pushed the boundaries, though not overstepped them, on what can be discussed in the country’s media. Coincidentally, this has been at a time when media restrictions have been relaxed, after the firmer regulations of the 1980s and 1990s.

Probing and analytical, she writes in a style that’s easy to read. She questions, and gets her readers to question issues too.

Certainly not all will agree with her opinions, but few are likely to be offended by the non-confrontational approach she uses.

Her writings have won her accolades from her peer group, and an award last year from the Society of Publishers in Asia.

A percentage of her royalties from the first print-run of the book will be donated to the Centre of Independent Journalism, Malaysia.

Another reason, perhaps, to buy this book?

THE CHINESE IN BRITAIN, 1800-PRESENT
By Gregor Benton and Edmund Terence Gomez
(Palgrave Macmillan, 470 pages)

THIS book is clearly aimed at scholars, researchers and those with a specialist interest in the subject title.

Gregor Benton is a professor of Chinese history at the School of History and Archaeology at Cardiff University, and Edmund Terence Gomez had worked as a research coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

Terence was also an associate professor of history at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya.

Possibly the most thorough work ever published on the subject, the authors have left no stone unturned in their research. Its appendix, notes and bibliography testify to this.

Though aimed at those with a special interest in the Chinese community in Britain and rich with academic detail, the book may still offer readers with a passing interest in the subject plenty of enjoyable reading too.

From the revelation that the Chinese were the first Asian immigrant group to settle in Britain, to their wartime contribution to the country, the authors reveal many fascinating insights into the commercial and social development of Britain’s citizens of Chinese origin.