Author and television presenter, Julian Davison, is the son of an architect and grew up in Singapore and Malaysia.

He was educated in England and has a doctorate in social anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He has edited or otherwise contributed to several reference books and scholarly works relating to the region, including books on Balinese and Indonesian architecture.

Since the beginning of the millennium he has been studying the architectural legacy of colonial-era Singapore — Black and White: the Singapore House 1898-1941, appeared in 2005, followed by Singapore Shophouse in 2010. He has also published two critically acclaimed collections of autobiographical reminiscences relating to his early life in Singapore and Malaya — One For The Road and An Eastern Port.

Between 2003 and 2005, Davison presented Singapore TV’s popular ‘Site and Sound’ local history series; more recently he has hosted programmes for the Discovery and History Channels.