Showing results by author "Neil Humphreys" in All Categories

Laid-back English lessons with your host Neil Humphrey! Neil talks about a variety of topics in English to help you build your vocabulary and improve your listening skills. Neil Humphrey is a native English speaker from San Francisco, California (USA). He is the owner of Dream Tree English school located in Kanagawa, Japan. Find transcripts, worksheets and other resources at englishwithneil.com

Singapore has been evolving at a blistering pace. Old Singapore is in danger of being left behind. As a result, active citizenry is taking off like never before with Singaporeans campaigning to save heritage sites such as Bukit Brown, Joo Chiat's HDB flats and Toa Payoh's Dragon Playground, with areas like Jalan Besar, Balestier and Tiong Bahru championed for their history. Nostalgia is spreading through the country.

Singapore got sexy and the country's best-selling author got jealous. After five years chasing echidnas and platypuses in Australia, Neil Humphreys returns to Singapore to see if the rumours are true. Like an old girlfriend getting a lusty makeover, the island transformed while Humphreys was away. Singapore is not just a sexier island, it's a different world.

When a foreign worker is found dead in a Singapore back street, few people care. But then another victim turns up, and then another, all killed with the same weapon. With its reputation as a safe, global city in ruins, Singapore struggles to come to grips with its first serial killer in decades. And when a famous woman disappears, terror takes hold. In desperation, the authorities turns to the one man they loathe almost as much as the serial killer Detective Inspector Stanley Low. Belligerent and unrepentant, Low's insubordination has been punished with a menial desk job.

Detective Inspector Stanley Low is having a really bad day. His bipolar condition is already ruining another session with his psychiatrist when a sadistic sex murder-suicide at Singapore’s most prestigious hotel plunges him back into a sordid underworld he was desperate to leave behind. Marina Bay Sands represents Singapore’s attempt to become the Monaco of Asia, a sparkling, physical embodiment of the island’s devotion to economic growth at any cost. A murdered prostitute and a dead expatriate ask questions of a society no-one is particularly keen to answer.

London is angry, divided, and obsessed with foreigners. A murdered Asian and some racist graffiti in Chinatown threaten to trigger the race war that the white supremacists of Make England Great Again have been hoping for. They just need a tipping point. He arrives in the shape of Detective Inspector Stanley Low. Brilliant and bipolar. He hates everyone almost as much as he hates himself. Singapore doesn’t want him, and he doesn’t want to be in London. There are too many bad memories. Low is plunged into a polarised city, where xenophobia and intolerance feed screaming echo chambers.