A Novel of the Emergency Years

Got a very nice surprise in the post today. Philip Tatham of Monsoon Books sent me his latest publication - Frederick Lees' novel The Malayan Life of Ferdach O'Haney. The cover art (which shows the Sultan Abdul Samad building and cricketers on the padang in front of the Selangor Club) is just beautiful, and here's the blurb on the back to whet your appetite. :

It is 1950 and the Federation of Malaya is in the throes of the Malayan Emergency. The British are struggling to defeat the communist terrorists and deal with rising nationalism in the colony.

Ferdach O’Haney arrives in Malaya as a young Anglo-Irish man to serve the Federation government, and he is plunged into the nitty-gritty of Malayan Emergency duties in the New Villages and in the communistoccupied jungles of Perak.

Gregarious and bisexual, O’Haney is equally at home in the brothels of Penang and in Singapore’s sleazy Bugis Street as he is in the corridors of British intelligence at Phoenix Park in Singapore and in the manicured grounds of King’s House and Carcosa in Kuala Lumpur. He befriends communist terrorists and nationalist sympathisers, experiences the bloody Maria Hertogh race riots, and comes up against prejudiced colonial administrators. O’Haney meets General Briggs and Chin Peng, the leader of the communist guerrillas, and he reveals new information about the assassination of Sir Henry Gurney.

The Malayan Life of Ferdach O’Haney is a fictionalised account of the author Frederick Lees’ own experiences in 1950s Malaya.

The first part of this novel was actually published in 2004 by Silverfish Books as Fool's Gold.

You might remember I blogged about Freddie as the Englishman who shouted the third Merdeka! You can read more about him, and an extract from the book here.

Rice Wine and Dancing Girls

Philip Tatham of Monsoon books wrote to tell me his latest book Rice Wine and Dancing Girls has now had its launch in Singapore. I read the book some time back, and wrote a blurb for the back cover.

It makes me very happy that the stories of ordinary Malaysians are being recorded for posterity, and this book is a memoir with a difference - Wong Seng Chow actually used his father's scattered notes and archived interview material to recreate his father's life story.

Bong Kai Hong was a pioneer cinema manager working for the Cathay Organisation in Malaya and Singapore during the golden age of cinema. One of his unwritten rules “Retain calm presence of mind” proves particularly useful as he finds himself dealing with everything from cabaret girls, a jingoistic journalist, ticket-touting gangsters, to Sarawakian longhouse etiquette.

The contemporary photos, especially those of the old cinema buildings are an added delight.

The only disappointment for me was that I would have liked to have heard more about the films that Cathay was showing!

Monsoon Making Waves in Local Publishing

It was so good to see Singaporean-based publisher Philip Tatham of Monsoon Books in the Telegraph yesterday talking about his ambition to "put South East Asia at the heart of the literary map".

The piece by Rosie Milne profiles Tatham, a British expat who studied South-East Asia Studies at Hull and then moved to Malaysia and spent a decade in publishing before moving to Singapore in 2004 to set up his company. Monsoon has really taken off, finishing 2007 with top ten bestsellers in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

(The Malaysian hit of course was the wonderful Growing Up in Terengganu by Awang Goneng.)

Some of the problems Philip is working to solve :

Sorting out distribution was a big problem, but I think we've cracked that one now ... We also face constant problems getting paid in some of our smaller markets - getting money out of the Philippines is an ongoing battle. It's also a struggle to get agents to take us seriously. There are very few agents working in Asia, and agents in London and New York as yet seem reluctant to show us manuscripts. That should change, as we become more established.

Monsoon Season

Publisher Philip Tatham of Monsoon Books in Singapore is steadily building up a very interesting list of publications that includes fiction, non-fiction, memoir, stirring tales of real-life adventure, accounts of historical interest ... and even erotica!

He has been very kind sending me copies of his latest publications. The latest parcel contained a copy of Awang Goneng's Growing Up in Trengganu which I'm currently enjoying and will blog about very soon (and do come and meet the author next Saturday at Seksan's!) and three other books which look rather good:

First a true life adventure - The Boat by Walter Gibson:

In 1942 a ship carrying 500 escapees from Japanese-occupied Singapore set sail from Padang for Ceylon. Halfway to safety she was torpedoed and sank. Amidst the horror and confusion, only one lifeboat was launched—a lifeboat built to carry twenty-eight but to which 135 souls now looked to for salvation. For twenty-six days she drifted across the Indian Ocean. For twenty-six days, cannibalism, murder, heroism and self-sacrifice drifted with her. When the lifeboat finally ran aground on the island of Sipora, off Sumatra, only four had survived: two Javanese seamen, a Chinese girl, Doris Lim, and Walter Gibson of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The Boat is Walter Gibson's true account of that horrific event. He captures vividly the mental trauma, the physical pain, the decision to kill or be killed but above all, the determination not to die.

Then there's Suchen Christine Lim's new collection of short fiction The Lies that Build a Marriage:

A mother finds out her son is gay; a daughter finds out her two mothers are lesbians; a niece stumbles upon the body of her dead uncle dressed in his wife's sarong kebaya; and an old man's nascent feelings for a Filipino maid lead him back to his suppressed art.

The Lies That Build A Marriage, Suchen Christine Lim's short stories of the unsung, unsaid and uncelebrated in Singapore, delve beneath the sunlit island's prosperity and coded decorum. Her characters chip away prejudice and sculpt it into acceptance of the other.

And then there's Indiscreet Memories: 1901 Singapore Through the Eyes of a Colonial Englishman:

Stepping off the SS Hamburg on a moonlit night in January 1901, Edwin A. Brown knew little about his new home—the Straits Settlement of Singapore. Through diary extracts and personal memories, this young Englishman brings to life characters and events in a country few would recognise today. Life for the early settlers was always eventful. Entertainment came in the form of comic operas, visiting circuses, balls at Government House and socialising at the Tingel Tangel dance hall. There were rickshaw strikes, sightings of a sea serpent in the Singapore harbour, Sunday morning horse rides around the Settlement and tigers causing havoc in Chinatown. From the death of Queen Victoria and the coronation of King Edward to the decision by Straits-born Chinese to discard their towchang (queues), we come to understand how historical events shaped and affected the society of the day. Indiscreet Memories is one man's true account of life in Singapore as it was over a hundred years ago.

And here's some good news from Philip for all those who like cheap books and free stuff:

Cheapies: We're offering 30% off all books (for the next few months) to celebrate our new website. The may not be of much interest to Malaysians since we already discount our books for the price-conscious Malaysian market but it's a great bargain for your readers living outside Malaysia. Here.

Freebies: We're offering free books every month! This month we're giving away copies of Nigel Barley's "Rogue Raider". Here.

It's all good news.

Cover Story

Philip Tatham of Monsoon Books thanks you all for your feedback about the cover for John Dodd's forthcoming book A Company of Planters. He writes:

As with most online polls, one has to expect a mixed bag of constructive criticism and, well, just criticism. We took all of the views into consideration ... too dull, none of the above, too brown, odd machine gun, Gollum lookalike ... and decided to start from scratch! Option 1 is obviously aesthetically pleasing as it is simple and symmetrical but the Gollum references -- and queries from a number of other people about the origins of the boy: was he African, South American, Indonesian? -- forced us to drop it from the running. Despite the machine gun confusion -- don't Malaysians know planters were issued with arms during the Emergency period? -- we strongly felt that Option 2 and 3 were more relevant to the story. After all, the image is of a real planter in 50s Malaya. Back in Dublin our designer tweaked fonts, increased the subtitle point size, extended the photograph, repositioned text, handcoloured the bag and cushion and added texture to the image. The result, we hope, is a cover with character that will entice browsers to pick the book up and read the backcover text. Of course we could now ask your readers for their help with the backcover text but, from experience, we would never come to an agreement!

We really valued the input from your readers and I'm sorry we couldn't choose Option 1 but we felt the comments required us to step back and rethink the design. We can never please everybody but I hope those who voted for Option 1 will take a look at the book if they see it in the bookshop!

A huge thank you to everybody who voted and commented, you really did help us with the cover design for this book.

So who won the competition? We decided that we had to work on The Visitor's appauling ignorance. We felt desperately sorry for jy living in the land of chocs and clocks but deprived of books in English. And we enjoyed secret history's great story about her toothless grandfather.

Can each of the winners please send me their full postal addresses so Philip can post you a copy? (My e-mail is sbakar at streamyx dot com)

What's in a Cover?

First impressions count - whether we're meeting someone new, or browsing new titles in the bookshop. As Jamelah Earle says on the Literary Kicks website:

Of course, it's no secret that design is an art form, and book cover design is one of its most specialized genres. ... It's one thing to create a good design, but something much greater to create a good design that manages to incorporate a book's subject matter and present it in a way that will make people want to read what's underneath the cover.

Publisher Philip Tatham of Singapore-based Monsoon Books would appreciate you advice about a book cover with a Malaysian theme. A Company of Planters: Confessions of a Colonial Rubber Planter in 1950s Malaya by John Dodd is due to be released here at the end of March.

The blurb on the book reads:

With true stories that would make even Somerset Maugham blush, this memoir offers a fascinating and often hilarious glimpse of colonial life in 1950's Malaya. But life was more than just a series of stengahs in the club house, dalliances in the Chinese brothels of Penang and charming “pillow dictionaries” – there were strikes, riots, snakes, plantation fires and deadly ambushes by Communist terrorists to contend with.

Which cover, in your opinion, will appeal more to book buyers in Malaysia? (The covers below were all created by a designer based in Dublin: she won "best fiction cover design" award in Ireland last year).

The one that receives most votes in this poll will be the one used, so this is your chance to feed into the publishing process.

Option A

Option B

Option C

Which cover do you like best?
	Option A?
	Option B?
	Option C?
pollcode.com free polls

And now announcing this blog's first competititon with real prizes (not just "You can take me to lunch if you win" which hasn't had a huge number of takers, for some reason.)

Philip is giving away copies of this book to the three people who make the best case for receiving a copy.

Post your entries in the comments. You have one week. The competition is open to overseas readers of this blog too, and will be judged by Philip and meself.

A Publishing Ecosystem?

Philip Tatham of Monsoon Books sent me an interesting snippet from last Saturday's Straits Times (which I can't link to because it is already behind subscription which pisses me off no end!*). In an article about the Singaporean publishing scene in 2005, one of Philip's authors caused a stir:

Gerrie Lim is not one to shy away from taboo topics or mince his words. Which is why the 46-year-old pop culture critic, who writes on topics ranging from porn to rock music, is a publisher's dream.

His book about sex escorts in Asia, Invisible Trade, has shifted nearly 18,000 copies since it hit the shelves last year. He is planning a sex industry sequel next year.

This year, he launched Idol To Icon, which examines how celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Jennifer Lopez become mega brands. It was published by UK's Cyan Books.

The iconoclast says his independent-minded, questioning streak is a result of his disgust for the repressive environment he grew up in during the 1970s. 'The school system here sucked. If you asked a question that was not part of what the teacher put on the board, she would say: 'It's not in the syllabus, you don't need to know.' How stupid is that?' he vents.

In 1980, the former St Joseph's Institution and Catholic Junior College student went to Perth to study political philosophy at the University of Western Australia.

'I didn't really want to do a degree here. I just couldn't see myself fitting into NUS. Yuck! You can quote me on that!' he says.

The eldest of three children of middle-class Catholic parents, Mr Lim went on to attend journalism school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His brother is a bank executive and his sister is a school teacher in Canada.

It was in the City of Angels, capital of pop culture, that he felt at home for the first time. He spent close to 15 years there, writing features and music reviews for magazines like Billboard, LA Weekly and Playboy from a Santa Monica rental flat, earning 'enough to get by'.

His first book, Inside The Outsider, featuring a series of interviews with rock stars like David Bowie and Patti Smith, was published here by Big O in 1997. It sold just 500 copies.

In 2001, he moved back to Singapore to be with his family and Chinese Singaporean girlfriend. He is now part of a rare species in Singapore - the full-time writer. 'I'm famous but not rich,' quips the writer, who lives off his royalties, in a condominium in Holland Village with his girlfriend.

Quoting an Elvis Costello song, (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes, he says: 'I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused. ... Singapore is basically a country that likes to think of itself as a First World country. But it's not. It's really a Third World country that pretends to be a First World country.'

This Third World mentality, he charges, also permeates the publishing industry. Many publishers are queasy about what can or cannot be published.

'Even expats have told me: 'I'm surprised that your book can be published.' But why? Doesn't it say something?' he asks. 'Creativity doesn't grow on trees. How are you going to create an ecosystem of publishers and authors when everything seems to be done by government edict?'

He is scornful that publishers here churn out cheap-looking books for the local market, 'underestimating the intelligence of local readers'. Part of the problem is that few publishers here are prepared to pay advances to authors, unlike in the US and Britain. He received undisclosed advances for his two books.

'It's very Third World thinking. How are you going to foster a publishing culture if you are going to treat writers like that?' he rants.

* Philip also forwarded the link to another article from the Strait's Times, reproduced here. It makes terribly depressing reading. It also makes the publishing situation in Malaysia seems not quite so bad after all!