Hi, I’m Dawn Farnham, author of two books of historical fiction based in Singapore, The Red Thread and The Shallow Seas, which are Book One and Book Two in a series. I am currently working on Book Three, The Hills of Singapore.

I love history and Singapore history has been my muse and inspiration for writing these books. I am a docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum and love to guide local history lovers and tourists around these two fabulous museums. the artifacts and stories in the  Peranakan Museum were  the impetus and inspiration for my first book, The Red Thread.

I wrote this book to bring the history of Singapore to a wider public in a fun and enjoyable way – through stories. Below is some information about these books which, if you love history, romance and a good story, I hope you will enjoy. Many of my readers have told me that, after reading them, they have gone on to revisit places and delve more deeply into the factual history of Singapore and that is wonderful.

I truly believe that well-written, enjoyable historical fiction has a real place in opening doors to people, places and times of the past.

Below are some descriptions and reviews. You can check out more at my website www.dawnfarnham.com.

The Red Thread
A Chinese Tale of Love and Fate in 1830s Singapore

Like Chinese silk, The Red Thread is, by turns, gentle and strong, exploring a love that breaks through the divide of race and culture, a love that is both deeply physical and a marriage of souls. Set against the backdrop of 1830s Singapore where piracy, crime, triads and tigers are commonplace, this cultural romance follows the struggle of two lovers: Zhen, once the loweliest of Chinese coolies and triad member, later chosen to marry into a Peranakan family of Baba Chinese merchants; and Charlotte, an 18-year-old Scots girl and sister of Singapore’s Head of Police. Two cultures bound together by the invisible threads of fate yet separated by cultural diversity.

By incorporating real figures from Singapore’s historical past, Dawn Farnham brings to life the heady atmosphere of Old Singapore, where exotic beliefs and customs clash and jostle in the struggle to make a life and create mutual understanding between peoples from different worlds.

“When Charlotte MacLeod journeys from her home in Madagascar to faraway, exotic Singapore in the 1830s, little does she realize how very different her new life will be. Her brother Robert has just been named head of the local police force, and her social position, together with her boundless curiosity and formidable intellect, leads her into friendships and affairs with men and women of many nationalities, religions, and political beliefs. Farnham’s debut is bittersweet and contemplative, a leisurely exploration replete with richly detailed landscapes both physical and interior. Multiple protagonists and perspectives, both Eastern and Western, and elaborate description transport the reader to a fascinating time and place brimming with mystical and poetic flourishes.”

–Booklist (Journal of the American Library Association)

The Shallow Seas

In this sequel to The Red Thread, Charlotte Macleod is nineteen, pregnant, and alone in 1842. She is fleeing a scandalous liaison with her married Chinese lover, a liaison which would bring ruin on him, herself, and her brother, Robert, the police chief of Singapore. When Tigran Manouk, forty, and the richest merchant in Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, asks for her hand in marriage, the choice is no choice.