- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (21 Feb 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0719563313
- ISBN-13: 978-0719563317
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.6 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,124,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #72 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Malaysia
- #76 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > South Indian Ocean Islands
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
"An exceptional investigation ! and an engrossing portrait of the Englishman in his topee and pale linen jacket ! standing firm in the midday sun" -- The Sunday Times "In her fine book, Margaret Shennan does belated justice to the brave and industrious men and women who gave their best to Malaya" -- Allan Massie Literary Review "An acute and sometimes poignancy account of the soft, all too vulnerable underbelly of a society tangoing heedlessly towards the abyss of the fall of Singapore: a tragic, classic case of pride before a fall" -- Charles Allen "Margaret Shennan describes in fascinating detail the often bizarre and not infrequently terrible annals of colonial Malaya" -- Martin Booth The Sunday Times
Contemporary Review
'The author mingles family memories with historical insight to explore a corner of Empire often ignored by modern writers'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a scholarly work but it should attract many general readers. The author writes about a country she knows: she was spent her childhood in Malaya where her father worked from 1926 to 1953. (She earlier published her account of her Malayan childhood under the title of Missee.) She employs a limpid, easy style and relies a lot on the approach of menu peuple: there are many private-life details to set off the historical account and the bibliography and notes show that a huge range of personal sources has been used. In addition, readers with experience of the country during the later colonial period are likely to have known some of the personalities mentioned, such as Jimmy Hislop (planter turned guerrilla commander) and the legendary joker “Puck” Puckridge. The Dorothy Nixon whom one knew as the endlessly helpful secretary of Kuala Lumpur Book Club must be she who is noted as having been interned by the Japanese in Singapore. There are many such leads but even a general reader will be interested in earlier “characters” such as Captain Tristram Speedy “who stood six feet five, sported Abyssinian garb, played the bagpipes, and brought his own sepoys from India to quell the riotous miners of Larut.” Another person belonging to fable was Frenchman Leopold Chasseriau whose services, rather like those of James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, were sought by local rulers to quell piracy.
There are a few errors, for example a photograph purporting to feature “the future Prime Minister of Malaya” seems, in fact, to show the first Agong (elected Paramount Ruler). An omission is perhaps the importance of oil palm planting during the latter part of the period. Nevertheless, a great deal happened during the period covered and Shennan brings off a considerable feat of compression and balance in covering all the main events. These include some not widely known, such as the attack on Penang by a German cruiser at the start of WWI and the Singapore mutiny of 1915. The chapters dealing with the fall of Singapore in 1942 and the resulting escape stories are positively exciting. Overall, a very readable account: school history books were never like this!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a scholarly work but it should attract many general readers. The author writes about a country she knows: she was spent her childhood in Malaya where her father worked from 1926 to 1953. (She earlier published her account of her Malayan childhood under the title of "Missee".) She employs a limpid, easy style and relies a lot on the approach of "menu peuple": there are many private-life details to set off the historical account and the bibliography and notes show that a huge range of personal sources has been used. In addition, readers with experience of the country during the later colonial period are likely to have known some of the personalities mentioned, such as Jimmy Hislop (planter turned guerrilla commander) and the legendary joker "Puck" Puckridge. The Dorothy Nixon whom one knew as the endlessly helpful secretary of Kuala Lumpur Book Club must be she who is noted as having been interned by the Japanese in Singapore. There are many such leads but even a general reader will be interested in earlier "characters" such as Captain Tristram Speedy "who stood six feet five, sported Abyssinian garb, played the bagpipes, and brought his own sepoys from India to quell the riotous miners of Larut." Another person belonging to fable was Frenchman Leopold Chasseriau whose services, rather like those of James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, were sought by local rulers to quell piracy.
There are a few errors, for example a photograph purporting to feature "the future Prime Minister of Malaya" seems, in fact, to show the first Agong (elected Paramount Ruler). An omission is perhaps the importance of oil palm planting during the latter part of the period. Nevertheless, a great deal happened during the period covered and Shennan brings off a considerable feat of compression and balance in covering all the main events. These include some not widely known, such as the attack on Penang by a German cruiser at the start of WWI and the Singapore mutiny of 1915. The chapters dealing with the fall of Singapore in 1942 and the resulting escape stories are positively exciting. Overall, a very readable account: school history books were never like this!
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent history of the British in Malaya. The period covered is from 1880 to 1960.It is well-written and full of anecdotes told through diaries and letters. The pictures in this book would bring back fond memories to those who live through this period. I highly recommend this book.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Confusing 'England' with Britain
A very interesting book, although it is very irritating when the author consistently makes the error of confusing England & Britain - England didn't go to war, Britain did, Scots &... Read more
Published on 28 July 2009 by Iain Ww Grogan
Memories
Having lived in Malaya,I found this very well written book
brought back some most enjoyable memories,it brings to life
the very soul of the country. Read more
brought back some most enjoyable memories,it brings to life
the very soul of the country. Read more
Published on 25 May 2009 by D. C. Wright
Romantic View of Colonial Past
This is quite an interesting read of the colonial days gone by, but it is certainly not a critical look at that time. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2003
Superb and intelligent look at British Malaya of yore
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which gives a frank and also whimsical look at the idealism, commercialism and all the other contradictions inherent in colonialism. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2002 by Wilhelm Snyman
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