50 Stories from My Life

S R Nathan is one of Singapore's most distinguished public servants. Born into poverty, he survived family tragedy, destitution and the Japanese occupation. After getting a university diploma as an adult, he worked his way through the civil service ranks to become successively a mediator in trade union disputes, a foreign affairs expert, a manager of a media company, a diplomat and a two-term president of Singapore.

He has been an eyewitness to Singapore's history before and after independen...