Books: Man's best friends

by Prabhakaran S. Nair

One of the signs of a good education system is the undying love for books once used at school. Can anyone of you remember the books that we used way back in school ? Let me try and remember, and share with you some of the English literature books that I remember having used from Forms 1 to 3:

FORM 1 (1967)

“Six Short Plays” by J.A. Bright
“Thirty-Nine Steps” by John Buchan
“Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson
“An Anthology of Poems” ( I wonder if this was the actual title)
“Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne

I remember that the anthology of poems contained poems such as the Inchcape Rock by Robert Southey.

“Six Short Plays” should call to mind one of the plays included in the collection,namely The Count of Monte Cristo dramatised from a novel by Alexandre Dumas.

You may remember some of the central characters such as:

Phileas Fogg, Passepartout, Mr. Fix and Aoda in “Around the World in 80 Days”
Long John Silver (and the parrot) in “Treasure Island”.
Scudder in “Thirty-Nine Steps”

(Do you remember the following lines from “Treasure Island”?:

Fifteen men on a dead man's chestYo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

The teacher in Form 1B was Mr. Patrick Chen

FORM 2 (1968)

“Red Winds” by Shamus Frazer
“Time Out in Sabah” (writer ??)
“The Card” by Arnold Bennett (Bridge Series)

I remember that in addition to these books there was a book of poems, as well as a book of plays (I think).

One of the poems included in the poetry book was “Lochinvar”.
I remember this poem clearly because there was an inter-school quiz competition in 1968, and one of the questions asked was on the character that the following description fitted :
“He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war.”
I answered “Lochinvar”, remembering the poem that was recited to us not very long ago by Ms. Seet
I do not remember whether “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth was included in the selection.

One play that I clearly recollect was “The Bishop’s Candlesticks”. I cannot remember the book which had this play in it.

The teacher in Form 2A was Ms. Seet Ai Hoon


FORM 3 (1969)

The books used included :

“Living Poetry” (Book 2) by Brother John Matthew
“Animal Farm” by George Orwell

We did not learn all the poems that were contained in “Living Poetry”. Most memorable was “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes as well as some of the limericks (“nonsense poems”). Funniest of the limericks was the following :

“Here lies my wife. Here let her lie.
Now she’s at rest. And so am I.”

One of the most touching poems is entitled “Little Boy”. The poem expresses the sadness experienced by the father as he feels he will slowly “lose” his son as he grows up. It begins like this :

“Let me hold you a while to my heart, little boy,
I am going to lose you, I know, dear,
For one terrible thing about nice little boys
Is the fact that they simply will grow, dear”

Another verse (3rd stanza) goes like this :

“Let me gaze in your eyes while their light is for me;
Let us sing while you still like my song, dear,
Ere the hungry years carry away my small boy,
I am fearing it will not be long, dear.”

Of course, it is difficult to forget a poem like “Silver” by Walter De La Mare.” I vaguely remember Mr. John Dossan hitting someone (maybe Ho Hee Mun) on the back, and reciting the lines :

“Couched in his kennel like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog.”

As for “Animal Farm” it is interesting how one by one all the Seven Commandments were slowly overturned by the revolutionary animals as the story unfolds. For example, the seventh commandment, “All animals are equal” is changed to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal that the others”. The unforgettable characters in the political satire include Mr. Jones (owner of Manor Farm), and the animals : Napoleon, Squealer, Snowball and Boxer.

The teacher in Form 3A was Mr. John Dossan. ( Incidentally “D-o-s-s-o-n” is a rather unusual variation of “D-a-w-s-o-n”)

These are as far as my memory goes.

Literature must have been an important subject even in the lower forms. As you can see it was taught by our form teachers, and not just anyone else !

Does anyone of you remember the names of books or interesting details that may have been missed out ? ( I need to add that some classes such as Form 1C could have used different books for English literature)

Most importantly, please do tell us if you have any of the books used in school. I am sure many of us would be dying to get hold of them. The books can be photostated and distributed.