Singapore Grip is a satirical tragicomic novel set in the late 1930s. The book is the final piece in the author's Empire Trilogy.
It tells the story about a British family in Singapore during colonial days. Here's a synopsis from Penguin Books:
"Singapore, 1939: life on the eve of World War II just isn’t what it used to be for Walter Blackett, head of British Singapore’s oldest and most powerful firm. No matter how forcefully the police break one strike, the natives go on strike somewhere else. His daughter keeps entangling herself with the most unsuitable beaus, while her intended match, the son of Blackett’s partner, is an idealistic sympathiser with the League of Nations and a vegetarian. Business may be booming—what with the war in Europe, the Allies are desperate for rubber and helpless to resist Blackett’s price-fixing and market manipulation—but something is wrong. No one suspects that the world of the British Empire, of fixed boundaries between classes and nations, is about to come to a terrible end."
The writer of the television adaptation describes it as such:
"This is the story of a colony being run by idiots"
Here is the trailer.
Image from BBC