The Eloquence of Desire by Amanda Sington-Williams

by Susan Abraham

Forthcoming Fiction on Old Malaya

Where internationally-published fiction on Malaysia is concerned in these coming months, the world can expect to be treated first of all to Malaysian award-winning novelist Rani Manicka‘s historical novel called The Japanese Lover – please do see my earlier post here slated to be released in London on May 13, 2010.

Then readers if you love a touch of literary flair that so kindly befits the Far East, do mark your bookshop or Amazon browse dates again because I have just stumbled onto the nicest surprise. The British novelist, poet and short story writer Amanda Sington-Williams is to have her novel, set in 1950’s colonial Malaysia, published a month later on June 14, in London by Sparkling Books.

The Eloquence of Desire is based largely on the story of  a scandalous Englishman George who is packed off to the tropics as penance for adultery. He arrives with his  reluctant wife  Dorothy while his daughter  Susan, is dismissed to boarding school.  A host of complicated relationships  accompanied by clandestine visits are wound into the more painful reality of Malaya’s Communist Insurgency. The synopsis warns that George subsequently takes on a lover, Dorothy turns a hermit and Susan resorts to self-harm. For some reason that exudes the plot’s flavour and atmosphere, I’m recalling smouldering dinner jacket scenes  and that, often moulded into tragic encounters, from 1972’s The Whiteoaks of Jalna.

Brighton resident Williams has travelled the world and worked in a variety of interesting occupations. Her personality appears to soar off her website with an irrepressible vibrance and her rich portfolio of writings are clearly eclectic.