Given her academic credentials, command of three languages and various Chinese dialects, as well as 15 years of exposure to Europe and Asia, Singapore-born Agnes Khoo could have reaped riches and influence by penning the biographies or speeches of some powerful ruling politicians or businessmen.

However, the 40-year-old PhD candidate at Britain's University of Manchester, has decided to do something she feels is more meaningful intellectually and fulfilling morally. She recently published a book compiling the oral accounts of the life experiences of 16 female rank-and-file members of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) now residing in southern Thailand.

The book is titled ' Life As The River Flows - Women In The Malayan Anti-Colonial Struggle' (Kuala Lumpur, SIRD, 2004)