The Albatross File: Inside Separation [Collector's Edition]

The Albatross File: Inside Separation — which casts a new complexion on Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965 — has been named Book of the Year 2026.

The winner of this top prize was selected from the champions of 16 categories at the Singapore Book Awards 2026, given by the Singapore Book Publishers Association.

The Albatross File: Inside Separation also bagged the Best Non-Fiction Title 2026.

Sometime in 1964, Dr Goh Keng Swee created a file code-named "Albatross" on Singapore's increasingly fraught relations with Kuala Lumpur.

In that file, he collected Cabinet papers as well as his own handwritten notes of his conversations with Malaysian leaders, leading to Singapore's separation from the federation. Almost all the material in the Albatross file is being published here for the first time, together with the oral history recollections of Singapore's founding leaders.

Singaporeans can read the thoughts, fears and hopes of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his comrades as they led the island-city to unexpected independence on 9 August 1965. Refusing to be intimidated and heedless of the personal risks they faced, they insisted on either a Malaysian Malaysia or negotiated constitutional rearrangements.

As unexpected as it was — and for many of Singapore's leaders then, an outcome they did not wish — Separation turned out to be "the best thing that ever happened to Singapore".

SUSAN SIM | EDITOR
Susan Sim has been a police officer, an intelligence analyst, a foreign correspondent, a diplomat and a counter-terrorism consultant.

Her biography of independent Singapore's first Minister for Law, EW Barker: The People's Minister (Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2016), won the Best Non-Fiction Title at the 2017 Singapore Book Awards.

She also wrote two books on the National Crime Prevention Council while serving as a board member, and worked on the Singapore Police Force's tribute to its pioneers, Setia dan Bakti: 50 Stories of Loyalty and Service.

She still writes the occasional commentary on terrorism in Southeast Asia.

ISBN: 978-981-5081-30-5
Size: 250 mm X 210 mm (portrait)
Page extent: 488 pp, limp cover with folder
Estimated weight: 1.1 kilogram
Publication: December 2025