By Keita Sin

The many literature regarding Singapore and Southeast Asia’s birds tells us not only about the birds themselves, but also a lot about the context of the landscape when the texts were written. Some birds were much rarer in the past, others were much more common. Some birds only showed up because of the pet trade, though they might be mistakenly thought by many to be native today. The old texts tell us many stories, and only through understanding them can we make informed judgements about the information we have today.

Often, the only way we can interact with the stories from the past is through a passive way – by reading what has already been written decades ago and making inferences. However, we recently had the rare and very precious opportunity to directly listen to the stories that went into the preparation of a locally important book, An Introduction to Malayan Birds, by Guy Madoc, the first edition of which was published in 1943.

An Introduction to Malayan Birds was among the literature that contributed greatly to the ornithological knowledge in Malaysia and Singapore. Details therein were cited by prominent works such as Gibson-Hill (1949), which we still frequently refer to today. On 15 January 2025, Fenella Madoc, daughter of Guy Madoc, shared her stories growing up with her father as a birdwatcher, the tales behind how he wrote the book, and her own experience attempting to reconstruct her father’s story at the National University of Singapore Library. I was given the opportunity to open the event through a short talk about historical literature then engage in a fireside chat (but with no fire – we were in a library!) with Fenella alongside our colleague Yen Yi, and moderated by Kathy, both from the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum. 

I won’t bore you any further with my descriptions – go watch the full video for yourself to learn more about how the book was written! Spoiler alert: it’s a super cool story; the book was written while Guy Madoc was in Changi prison. The YouTube video doesn’t include Yen Yi’s talk as it contained contents that could not be publicly shared, but the rest of the whole event is available.

We thank the National University of Singapore Library for inviting us to the event, and Fenella once again for sharing her thought provoking stories with us.

P.S. If you want to check out Guy Madoc’s amazing book for yourself, it has been fully digitised by the National University of Singapore Library and is freely accessible online! The library has also digitised some photographs in his collection, including photographs of birds taken by Guy Madoc himself. Check them out here!