The Editor

London, July 1826: Lady Sophia Raffles is left widowed and in debt
after the sudden death of her husband, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles,
later remembered as the 'founder of Singapore'. Determined to restore
his name after he is cleared of the East India Company's charges, Sophia
takes on the formidable challenge of compiling an account of his life.
Her Memoir of the Life and Public Service of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is published to critical acclaim in 1830. Accomplished
at enormous personal and financial cost, at a time when women did not
write memoirs, it is a remarkable feat. It becomes the single most
important source for all later accounts of her husband, saving him from
obscurity and shaping his legacy. But Sophia must also confront shadowy
truths behind the glory she feels bound to uphold, and face doubts about
the marriage she thought she knew. Set against vivid impressions of
Sumatra, Java, Penang and Singapore, her journey spans the
transformation from grief-stricken widow to powerful arbiter of history.