A Painter in Penang: A Gripping Story of the Malayan Emergency
Page 30
She bit her lip. ‘You don’t need an excuse.’
The foghorn sounded. ‘I have to go,’ she said, needlessly. ‘You don’t have to stay to wave me off. Goodbye Howard.’ She began to walk towards the ship, then just before the gangway, turned and ran back to him, throwing her arms around him. He drew her in and held her against him. She could hear the beating of his heart through his thin cotton shirt. He bent down and kissed the top of her head. ‘Goodbye, my sweet girl. Go and do great things. Send me a postcard occasionally and try not to forget me.’
‘I could never forget you, Howard. I owe you my life.’
‘And what a life it’s going to be. Paris won’t know what’s hit it.’ He eased her away. ‘Now go, before they sail without you, or I try to make you change your mind.’
Her cheeks streaming with tears, Jasmine turned and ran up the gangway.
THE END
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Author’s Notes and Acknowledgements
I have used the spelling Sungei Siput for the location of the 16th June murders that kicked off the Emergency, rather than the spelling used today - Sungai Siput. All contemporary accounts use the Sungei spelling, including the newspaper reports. This may cause confusion as there is another town spelt with the ‘e’ in the south of Malaysia in Malacca. I considered using the current Sungai spelling to avoid such confusion, but prefer to be historically accurate. This also goes for other spellings such as kampong or kampung – I have used what I believe would have been the common colonial British usage at the time, based on contemporary accounts.
Apart from significant historic figures, including the murdered planters, Chin Peng and named members of the government, all characters are entirely products of my imagination. One exception is Kuttan, who makes a brief appearance as the waiter at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo. This is the late Kottarapattu Chattu Kuttan, who was reputed to be the longest serving hotel employee in the world. He died in 2014, aged 94 while still working at the hotel as their iconic doorman, after seventy years’ service there. At the time of Jasmine’s and Evie’s stay in the hotel he would have been a waiter in the restaurant.
I drew on various sources in the background research to this book. These include
The Malayan Emergency: Essays on a Small, Distant War (Nias Monographs 2016), Souchou Yao;
The War of the Running Dogs, (Orion 2004) Noel Barber, 1971;
Malayan Spymaster, Memoirs of a Rubber Planter, Bandit Catcher and Spy, (Monsoon, 2012), Bruce Hemby;
Out in the Midday Sun, (John Murray Ltd 2000, new edition 2015 Monsoon), Margaret Shennan,;
Growing Up in British Malaya and Singapore, (World Scientific, 2015) Maurice Baker.
The BBC 1998 documentary, Malaya, The Undeclared War, which included interviews with Chin Peng, was invaluable as were past editions of The Straits Times.
The Huntley Film Archives proved to be a superb source of original footage of life in Malaya before and during the period.
My thanks also to Jeffery Seow for answering questions and pointing me in the direction of several useful online resources on Penang during the Emergency. Also to the Facebook group The Malayan Emergency 1948-1960 – the members’ posts and photographs made the period feel immediate and tangible.
As always thanks to Jane Dixon-Smith for her beautiful cover and Debi Alper, my wonderful editor.
Thanks also to the fellow members of my local critique group, Margaret Kaine, Jay Dixon and Joanna Warrington, and to Clare O’Brien, Debbie Marmor, Liza Perrat, Victoria Riley (who is also the fabulous narrator of the Penang audiobooks) and to Sharon Phelps, Judy Granit, Jane Willis, Lynn Osborne, Judy Cordiner and Jill Hiatt for their eagle eyes. And last but not least thanks to my readers across the world who make it all so worthwhile.
Glossary
Amah - nursemaid or housekeeper
Attap - straw thatching for roofs
Baju kurung – Malayan traditional woman’s dress
Cheongsam - traditional Chinese-style woman’s dress
Chicks – wooden slatted blinds
Kampong - village or rural settlement
Kebun - gardener
Mem - term used for European women, like ma’am or madam
Missee - European girl
Padang - grassy space for recreation, used for the daily muster on rubber estates
Stengah - whisky and soda – the favoured drink of expat European men
Syce - driver, groom or chauffeur - word imported from India
Tiffin - lunch - word imported from India
Tuan - honorific for addressing European men - sir, lord, boss
Tuan besar - big boss - head of enterprise
BMA - British Military Administration - in force between 1945 and April 1946
CT - communist terrorist - also referred to at the time as bandits
MPAJA - Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army
MNLA - Malayan National Liberation Army (sometimes wrongly translated as the Malayan Races Liberation Army)
Force 136 - name used from 1944 for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Far East – a guerrilla force parachuted into the jungle behind enemy lines to support indigenous resistance groups. In the last few months of the Second World War this group dropped around 2000 weapons into the jungle for the MPAJA. Most of these were never returned after the war and were used by the MNLA against the British during the Emergency.
About the Author
Clare Flynn is the author of twelve historical novels and a collection of short stories.
A former Marketing Director and strategy consultant, she was born in Liverpool and has lived in London, Newcastle, Paris, Milan, Brussels and Sydney and is now enjoying being in Eastbourne on the Sussex coast where she can see the sea and the Downs from her windows.
When not writing, she loves to travel (often for research purposes) and enjoys painting in oils and watercolours as well as making patchwork quilts and learning to play the piano again.
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