{"id":1461,"date":"2025-08-26T14:59:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/?post_type=product&p=1461"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:30:47","slug":"the-last-fools-the-eight-immortals-of-lee-kuan-yew","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/product\/the-last-fools-the-eight-immortals-of-lee-kuan-yew\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Fools \u2013 The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Peh is a Singapore Literature Prize-winning author and journalist. He is the author of numerous bestsellers, including\u00a0Neither Civil Nor Servant, The Last Fools, and The First Fools.<\/i>\u00a0He also wrote a pair of authorised biographies on former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong:\u00a0Tall Order<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Standing Tall<\/i>. His maiden solo title\u00a0When The Party Ends\u00a0<\/i>won the\u00a0SIngapore Literature Prize for its gripping on-the-ground reportage of ethnic riots, natural disasters, and political\u00a0upheavals. In addition, he has four picture books, including\u00a0Panjang<\/i>\u00a0which was shortlisted for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award and\u00a0Ready, Kueh Set, Go!<\/i>\u00a0which won the Singapore Book Awards in 2026. His books are repeated winners of the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards. He is a regular commentator on Singapore and China affairs, and was The Straits Times\u2019 news editor and China bureau chief. He is a political science graduate of the National University of Singapore and Columbia University in New York.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISBN: 978-981-18-4363-1 (Softcover)
\nPage Count: 224
\nYear Published: 2022
\nEdited by: Peh Shing Huei
\nAuthors: Aaron Low, Derek Wong, Jacqueline Woo, Justin Kor, Peh Shing Huei, Prabhu Silvam, Samantha Boh & Sue-Ann Chia
\nPublisher: The Nutgraf Books
\nDimensions: 15 \u00d7 23 \u00d7 2 cm
\nFormat: Softback<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, a book that fills a large hole in the Singapore Story about the largely forgotten men who worked hand in hand with the country\u2019s founding politicians to build the foundation for Singapore\u2019s future. Read this absorbing account to understand how they operated with their political masters in an intriguing milieu that is one of a kind in the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Han Fook Kwang, Editor-at-Large at The Straits Times<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Popular Readers\u2019 Choice Awards 2022 \u2013 English (Adult) category \u2013 Second Runner-up<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Alan HJ Chan \u2018Spirit of Singapore\u2019 Book Prize 2023 \u2013 Longlist<\/em><\/p>\n

How Singapore transformed from Third World to First is a story that has been well-documented through the eyes of outsiders and key figures in the nation\u2019s history, including Lee Kuan Yew himself. But never before has it been told from the perspective of the civil servants so instrumental in the success of this improbable nation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why the moniker \u2018Eight Immortals\u2019? Simply because these civil servants were so powerful that they were nicknamed after the fabled deities of Chinese mythology. The airports, seaports, airlines, housing projects, healthcare infrastructure, and financial systems they built are still here today \u2013 and are among the best in the world. While the heavens had the likes of Lu Dongbin, He Xiangu, and Lan Caihe, Singapore had:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • George Bogaars<\/li>\n
  • Andrew Chew<\/li>\n
  • Hon Sui Sen<\/li>\n
  • Howe Yoon Choong<\/li>\n
  • Lee Ek Tieng<\/li>\n
  • Ngiam Tong Dow<\/li>\n
  • J.Y. Pillay<\/li>\n
  • Sim Kee Boon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Want to read a book that is a\u00a0blend of history, inspiration, and motivation<\/strong>? Then this is the one for you. Journey through Singapore\u2019s formative years with a flip of each page. Pick up leadership lessons in every chapter. Be in awe at countless displays of boldness, vision, and intrepidity. We promise that you will never see Changi Airport or the Singapore River in the same light again.<\/p>\n

    Their trials, tribulations, and triumphs are niftily encapsulated in this independent book, written by eight experienced journalists and authors and edited by award-winning author Peh Shing Huei. It tells the story of how Singapore went from backwater nation to one of the world\u2019s most developed economies and peaceful countries \u2013 and it reads like a blockbluster, too.<\/p>\n

    Behind the Book<\/strong><\/p>\n

    They have been in the shadows for too long. So we decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n

    The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals of Lee Kuan Yew<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>began as a simple passion project when we were bored out of our wits as work slowed down during the pandemic in 2020. In some ways, we, too, felt like the last fools, embarking on a project we had no idea would even take off. We had only our grit and a writer\u2019s naive hope to fall back on.<\/p>\n

    Pen, paper, and laptops in hand, we wrote in a fervour. We trawled through years of newspaper articles, research papers, books, and even companies\u2019 annual reports. We listened to countless audio recordings too. And because all but two of the Eight Immortals have since passed away, we had to search for and interview old friends and family members of these men.<\/p>\n

    Two years, eight writers, and plenty of drafts later, we present the finished product: 224 pages of an epic read, cocooned in a vibrant cover of yellow and black.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[15],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1461","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-general","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"taxable","11":"shipping-taxable","12":"purchasable","13":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5106,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1461\/revisions\/5106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/nutgraf.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}