YOU can't rewrite history. Nor can you change your memoirs once published.

No one seemed more conscious of this than Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew when he went about preparing his memoirs three years ago. He wanted a book which was well-researched, accurate and thorough.

Like his many other undertakings, it had to be a first-rate piece of work.

But he also wanted something that Singaporeans, especially the younger generation born after the tumultuous times he was recounting, would actually read. Anything less would have been a waste of time, he thought.

His first priority was to get his facts right, a task he was assisted in by a team of researchers led by Mr Andrew Tan, 31, a deputy director in the Defence Ministry who was on loan to Singapore Press Holdings, a co-publisher of the book.

Said Mr Tan: "He kept his options open until he knew what he had to say was accurate and that others thought it was accurate.

"He would only start writing after reading and verifying the facts."

Veteran British journalist Dennis Bloodworth, 80, who helped to edit the early drafts from May 1995 to March last year, noted: "Mr Lee said in the early stages that he didn't want to appear insensitive, notably to Malaysia.

"But my view was that there is no point in writing an autobiography unless you tell the truth and the whole truth. That was the position he had accepted too.

"When it came to the writing, he put down frankly what he thought."

Copies of the draft were later sent to several young government officers to see how they reacted to it, as well as to several journalists for their comments on how it might be improved.

One of them, Straits Times political editor Han Fook Kwang, 45, said: "I told him that I found the draft a real page-turner, and that reading it I felt transported into another world -- his world -- and re-living those very exciting moments in his life."

Straits Times deputy news editor (political) Warren Fernandez, 32, added: "I started on it one morning about 9 am. My wife came home that evening at about 8 pm and found me still at it. It was hard to put down."

But parts of the draft were very detailed and slowed the reader down, he added. For example, there were four chapters on Mr Lee's years in Cambridge, as well as several on the Japanese Occupation, which contained a lot of background material, as well as little side-stories which, though interesting, risked losing some readers along the way.

"I sent him a long note, spelling out what I found interesting, what I thought could be cut, and what I thought he should not cut, especially the latter chapters on the Malaysia years," said Mr Fernandez.

To each of these notes from the 65 people he consulted, Mr Lee sent a detailed reply, responding to just about every point raised. In many cases, he followed up with an improved version taking in some of the comments made.

Ms Sumiko Tan, 34, assistant editor of Life! and Sunday Plus, said: "There were some portions in the early drafts which I found a little hard-going because I had either not lived through those times he was describing, or because they were too detailed, and I told him so.

"He welcomed such criticisms and would send back very quickly detailed replies as to why some suggestions were workable and others not."

The feedback process continued from April 1995 to July this year, with bound copies of the draft and faxed notes flying back and forth from the Istana.

Said Miss Wong Lin Hoe, private secretary to the Senior Minister: "The volume was tremendous. We churned out so much paper that we couldn't even account for them -- typing and retyping drafts and sending letters to people."

But the consultation was not just an academic exercise. Mr Lee was keen to act on the suggestions, taking in the views and ensuring that his final product would be a compelling read, not a dry historical account.

He turned to The Straits Times' Mr Han and Mr Fernandez, two of the three co-authors of a book on him a year earlier, titled Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and his Ideas, for help to turn the 900-page draft into the more reader-friendly, 680-page published version.

Said Mr Han: "The draft, after so many people had given their comments which he had taken in, was already very good. Our job was to improve the flow of the narrative, to cut out the passages which got in the way of the main story, and to make the book even more readable.

"Many times we agonised over what we were deleting. Would we be depriving readers of some interesting bits of information about the man? But we also wanted to keep the main story going at a good clip."

Added Mr Fernandez: "He kept asking us, is it interesting? Is it dull? What can I cut? What should I add or leave out? He took in many of our suggestions and would often send us an improved version at lightning speed."

Mr Lee never took for granted that what he had written was the best way of putting things, said Ms Shova Loh, 47, the memoirs' line editor whom SM described in the book as the one who "meticulously tightened" his sentences and "removed errors".

Ms Loh, a publishing manager in Times Edition, added: "He would question everything: Is there a better way of saying this? I found that refreshing. Even at the point when the memoirs went to print, he never stopped asking questions."

Now that volume one of his memoirs has been launched and sold out at bookstores almost overnight, SM Lee and his team are already preparing for part two.

Said Mr Cheong Yip Seng, editor in chief of the English and Malay Newspapers Division of Singapore Press Holdings, who supervised the editing team: "There is a lot of work still to be done. Soon, we will be starting work on volume two. The publishers have come up with a tentative schedule, to start work no later than the last quarter of this year."

But on volume one, he said: "Go buy the book.

"Believe me, it is a gripping story. I'm glad that Singapore, not just this generation, but future generations, now have what I think is a most authoritative account of how modern Singapore came about, from the principal player."