My grandfather was a tobacconist -he sold cigarettes, tobacco for pipes and roll-ups, cigars and all the paraphernalia of smoking such as matches and pipe cleaners.   At the back of the shop there was a flight of stairs leading up to the place where my grandparents lived with their children.   My mother spent most of her childhood living above the shop.   Today few people in Britain live with such a flimsy partition between their personal and working lives.

The shop house is a common sight in many parts of Asia; the business carried out in the ground floor shop could be motorcycle maintenance, furniture making or even a blacksmithing.   The sign above a blacksmith’s would be Tukang Besi -the iron worker.

I have exchanged an office in a tower for a virtual shop house.    The sign above my shop is Tukang Penulis -the workman writer.