He tickled funny bones here writing about his adventures in Singapore as a wide-eyed twentysomething from East London. Now, author Neil Humphreys, 34, is exploring a brave new world: fatherhood.

The author of the local bestseller, Notes From An Even Smaller Island (2001), and its two sequels welcomed his firstborn, daughter Abbie Rose Humphreys, on June 10 this year.

Unsurprisingly for a writer who has made his name penning funny observations about life, he has written Be My Baby, based on a diary he kept during the nine months he and his wife, Tracy, spent as expectant parents.

The book chronicles, with his usual irreverent humour, the challenges they faced.

Naturally, much of the humour comes from the physical changes his wife had to endure, from morning sickness to the actual birth.

But how does his wife feel about him milking certain, well, undignified situations for laughs?

'She trusts me. She knows I would never consciously cross a line and I don't think I have,' he says, speaking to LifeStyle over the telephone from Geelong, Australia. This is the seaside town south of Melbourne where he has lived since 2006, after a decade in Singapore.

'I did show a couple of parts to her first, something I'd never done before, as this is personal and the labour process itself is quite undignified for the woman.

'There is a lot of tears and blood, and it is quite unsightly. I did not want to censor that as it would be sanitised and artificial.'

He also believes that younger readers who have enjoyed reading about his escapades with taxi drivers and landladies in Singapore will not be put off by the rather more serious subject of Be My Baby.

'The tone and style is the same, whether I am writing about Singapore or America or the sub-prime mortgage disaster,' he says.

'It would be naive to say young people in Singapore only want to read about naked landladies and parents only want to read about parenthood. Everyone is someone's baby, so parenthood is easy to identify with.'

Meanwhile, fans will be pleased to hear that although the couple has moved to Australia to sate their wanderlust, they are seriously considering sending their daughter to school in Singapore for at least a few years.

'Singapore has changed me, there is no doubt about that. I am obsessed with our baby's education already,' he says with a chuckle.

'When I first moved to Singapore and became a teacher, I thought the system was far too kiasu and textbook-based. But as I've gotten older and mellowed, I appreciate certain aspects and realise that you can do much more with kids at an earlier age.

'In Australia, they believe kids are just kids, they should not be chained to the desk to learn their ABCs but it also means the learning process starts much later.'

Humphreys had hoped to take little Abbie with him when he promotes his book here next week but her British passport application was not processed in time.

Although Abbie is her first name and Rose her middle name, he and his wife use both together.

'We considered some names but they just didn't feel right. Then out of blue, my wife came up with Abbie Rose,' says the author, who still writes for this newspaper - a weekly Thursday column in the Sports pages and a fortnightly Saturday column in Life!

'I did not like the name Abbie but I like Rose as my grandmother's name is Rosie. My wife also knows I am a Beatles geek and Abbie Rose sounds like Abbey Road,' says Humphreys, referring to the band's iconic 1969 album.

'I have the Abbey Road vinyl, which I actually got at the old Clarke Quay market in Singapore and I am going to have it framed up alongside a picture of her.'

Where is the one place in Singapore he would take Abbie Rose?

His answer is prompt: 'Chinese Garden. I am not a religious person but Chinese Garden is my spiritual place.'

The landscaped park in Jurong East was the very first place he and a British friend visited when they came to Singapore in 1996. They sat in a pagoda and shared their dreams and ambitions. He later took his wife there on his birthday and has tried to return every year since.

'I am not religious but I am quite superstitious and I give thanks to the Chinese Garden gods. I would love to go back to that pagoda with my baby and say 'Thank you',' he says.

» Be My Baby ($18.50 before GST) is available at major bookstores.

Neil Humphreys will be in Singapore from Saturday to next Monday to promote his book at various bookstores. Check the listings in this Friday's Life! for details.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Nov 9, 2008.