Tales of the subterranean tunnels under the historic town of Malacca has existed for over a century. There were stories of tunnels that served as the governor’s secret emergency exit from the fortress and a mile long tunnel that once connected the fortress of Malacca to the fort on St. John’s hill, strategically built for the defence of the town. There were also stories of a tunnel under St. Paul’s hill and how people had gone into these tunnels but were never to been seen again because they were eaten alive by a giant mythical serpent who guards the tunnels. What secrets do the tunnels contain and why were people willing to risk their life by descending into the the dark and unknown orifices below Malacca? Is there lost treasure still buried in Malacca? Did the last Sultan of Malacca stash his huge cache of gold after the Portuguese captured Malacca and the secret vault still remains undiscovered till today? Was Malacca Ptolemy’s Golden Chersonese and the Ophir the source of King Solomon’s gold? This book uncovers the layers of history that unfolds Malacca’s most bizarre and amazing legend.

There was a gap of fifty years between the last book on the history of Malacca and this one written by Allein G Moore. Sultans and Spices, Guns and Greed, Race and Religion: The Story of Malacca will be valuable not only to a visitor to this historic city but will also inspire pride in Malaysians for it is also the story of the birth and growth of a nation. Allein takes the reader on a comprehensive but easy-to-read journey from its beginnings as a sleepy coastal fishing village on the west coast of Malaysia to its development into one of the most important trading centres in the world. The author brings to life the events and individuals who helped created Malacca in the long distant past and in more recent years. This book grew out of his own personal curiosity, and he writes not only to tell visitors more about his home town but also to inspire Malaccans to love and preserve their heritage.

The ancient port town of Malacca is an old town rich in history. Since the beginning of Malacca, its community was made up of a colourful potpourri of cultures and beliefs. The different communities have their own understanding of the powers of the supernatural. As far back as the year 1421, there was a written account from Chinese records of the strange and paranormal witnessed in Malacca. These stories continued in Portuguese, Dutch and British eras, up to modern times. There were accounts about hauntings, poltergeists, cryptozoology, giants, spirits, sorcery, witchcraft, shapeshifting creatures, simulacra, magical cures, strange phenomena, unusual human powers and other bizarre tales. Many of these stories have now become obscured and forgotten to us. This book contains a collection of 60 strange and paranormal stories reported from past reports, news, accounts, statements and descriptions that were officially recorded in books, journals, articles and newspapers.

Written in the perspective of a Malaysian Dutch descendant, it gives a comprehensive and never before narrated story about the history of the Dutch in Malaysia and the Malaysian Dutch community. This book divides the Dutch historical influences in Malaysia into four different eras. Each era is analysed and represented in relation to its respective social environment and political developments. Included are the historical contributions of individuals, such as the Dutch Admirals who attempted to capture Malacca, the Dutch Governors and their administrative ranks who governed the town and the contributions of the Malacca Burghers in shaping Malaysia's history.

The earliest account of the existence of the were-tiger comes from the Malacca Portuguese records. British Victorian era explorers to Malaya not only recorded stories about the were-tiger but told of several were-tiger villages hidden deep in the jungles of Malaya. These mythical shapeshifters struck fear in rural Malay society as they were able to kill their unsuspecting victims, usually out of vengeance. The Were-Tiger was written by the renowned Malayan colonial Sir Hugh Clifford and it was originally published in 1916. It is a short story of a village’s experience with a migrant Sumatran trader and a supernatural big cat that occurred in Slim, Pahang. Sir Hugh Clifford served as the British Resident at Pahang and later as British High Commissioner in Malaya.

A lighthearted chronicle of how foods have transformed human culture throughout the ages traces the barley- and wheat-driven early civilizations of the near East through the corn and potato industries in America.

The Periodic Table is largely a memoir of the years before and after Primo Levi’s transportation from his native Italy to Auschwitz as an anti-Facist partisan and a Jew. It recounts, in clear, precise, unfailingly beautiful prose, the story of the Piedmontese Jewish community from which Levi came, of his years as a student and young chemist at the inception of the Second World War, and of his investigations into the nature of the material world. As such, it provides crucial links and backgrounds, both personal and intellectual, in the tremendous project of remembrance that is Levi’s gift to posterity. But far from being a prologue to his experience of the Holocaust, Levi’s masterpiece represents his most impassioned response to the events that engulfed him. The Periodic Table celebrates the pleasures of love and friendship and the search for meaning, and stands as a monument to those things in us that are capable of resisting and enduring in the face of tyranny.