Edwin Thumboo leans forward in his chair and under his breath uses a four-letter word to describe Queen Elizabeth. The multi-award-winning Singaporean poet is a mellower version of the one arrested in 1954 for sedition (and subsequently acquitted) by the British colonial government. So the description of the former ruler of his home is not a personal attack; it forms part of our discussion on the state of free speech in modern Singapore.
He says describing the queen thus in England could land you in serious trouble, whereas at home using a similar word to describe a senior politician would be acceptable - as long as you didn't call him a liar. Fortunately for Thumboo, we are at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Scotland, where English monarchs have suffered worse than mere name calling.
Thumboo was 21 and on the editorial board of the radical Fajar magazine, published by the University of Malaya, where he was studying English literature, when it ran an article calling for independence from Britain. He and several fellow students were arrested following a clash between students and police a few days later.
His feelings of that time are captured in the poem May 1954, which includes the lines: We ask you see, The bitter, curving tide of history, See well enough, relinquish, Restore this place, this sun, To us ... and the waiting generations. Depart white man.
'After the sedition trial, I wrote a few poems and kept only one, May 1954. I've got no hard feelings,' he says. 'In fact, the guy who arrested me, we used to meet at his club in London years later. When he arrested me he said, 'I'm just doing my duty'.
'I don't want to have controversy now. Life is too short. I've had fights and I used to enjoy them because civilised disagreements are a source of good adrenaline.'