SOURCE: BRITISH MALAYA
The writer Anthony Burgess is perhaps best known for his book, The Clockwork Orange published in 1962 although he wrote over thirty novels, as well as screenplays, translations, and musical compositions. He spent four years in Malaya between 1954 and 1958 during which time his first novel was published: The Malayan Trilogy.
Burgess and his wife arrived in Malaya in August, 1954, after he accepted a position with the British Colonial Service teaching at the Malay College in Kuala Kangsar. Known as “the Eaton of the East” he spent his time teaching English to children of wealthy Malays. Whilst there he learnt Malay and became fluent as well as gaining a working knowledge of Chinese mandarin, Arabic and Urdu. He said he wanted to get to know the country and the people and avoid the “aloof club-frequenting whites”.
At this time the decolonisation of Malaya was proceeding rapidly with independence achieved in 1957 and Burgess said he wanted to write about the state of Malaya at this momentous period before it disappeared for ever.
The result was his first work of fiction, The Malayan Trilogy, which he wrote whilst teaching explaining that writing was just a hobby and that he didn’t expect to earn money from it.
The Malayan Trilogy, also called The Long Day Wanes, includes Time for a Tiger (1956), Enemy in the Blanket (1958), and Beds in the East (1959). The trilogy is about the adventures of a British teacher in Malaya, Victor Crabbe, including the problems he encounters in his job, the marital difficulties with his wife and his efforts to confront the insurgency. The work is a humorous satire typical of the ex-pat genre, with comic situations involving various picaresque characters, the ethnic differences between Malay, Chinese and Indian, the plight of the British ex-pat working in the colonial service, set against the background of the Malayan Emergency and the decolonisation of the country.
Perhaps predictably, tensions developed between himself and the principal of Malay College, in particular over his complaints about his accommodation in the famous King’s Pavilion, the old British Governor’s residence, and he was transferred to another school, the Malay Teachers’ Training College at Kota Bharu. Whilst here he took the Colonial Office language examinations for proficiency in Malay which he passed and was awarded a salary increase.
However, in 1958 he decided to leave Malaya for good and after a brief spell in England he took up a teaching position in Brunei where he once more pursued his satirical writing, this time a book about Brunei which, in order to avoid censure by the authorities, he disguised as a fictional African country.
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18/1/2025: 9.13 p.m
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