Escape from Paradise: From Third World To First

Escape from Paradise is a contemporary and true woman's story set in Singapore, Brunei, Australia, England, and the United States. It involves Singapore's famous Tiger Balm family, and a wealthy and mysterious family from Brunei and the link between them, a young Singaporean woman, May Chu Lee. This story of May Chu's escape from her arranged marriage in Singapore to the United States, involves an American, the current British Lord Chancellor, and an ex-CIA agent with Republican Party ties to George Bush, Sr., and now a prominent Washington lobbyist for Burma. For divorce in Singapore, May Chu needed more than a lawyer; she was forced to wage guerilla warfare against a powerful family with business interests in the United States, including an IPO of X-10 Wireless, then under registration with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. From its first paragraph, Escape from Paradise draws the reader into the ambiance of a cosmopolitan Asia never touched upon by any other book.

May Chu Harding, nee Lee, was born in Singapore. At the age of eighteen, she founded and published two professional trade magazines, Development and Construction, and Banking and Financial Review. May Chu wrote the editorials and lead articles for both magazines, including in-person interviews with I. M. Pei, and Pershing Wong. May Chu is the great-granddaughter of Aw Boon Par, who, with his brother, developed Tiger Balm and founded the Sing Tao Group, publishing newspapers in Asia, Australia, the United States, and Canada. May Chu’s native language is English, but she is also fluent in four Chinese dialects and Malay.

John Harding was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He has spent most of his adult life abroad including stays in Singapore (nine years), Saudi Arabia (nine years), and Italy (seven years). In Singapore, John was the only American expatriate in Singapore’s civil service. John’s writing DNA comes from his mother, Mary Chamberlin, author of two books, Dear Friends and Darling Romans, and The Palazzo, both published by Lippincott. John’s writing nurture comes from his stepmother, screenwriter Isobel Lennart, author of Funny Girl, and Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. A fluent speaker of Italian, he is also working on a novel about American expatriates in the oil business, which takes place in Saudi Arabia and Italy.