Frederick Lees’ new novel, The Malayan Life of Ferdach O’Haney, was published in October 2009. The book is a fictionalized account of Freddie’s own experiences in the 1950s in Malaya. The book is described as follows.
“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 communist occupied 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 sympathizers, experiences the bloody M
aria 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.”
Comments on the book are as follows:
“Frederick Lees’ fascinating novel is set in the 1950s during the Malayan Emergency, one of the most exciting periods of Malaysia’s history. Lees is able to make those days come alive because he was there at the time and knows what he’s writing about … a vivid and gripping story”— Leon Comber, ex-Malayan Special Branch and author of Malaya’s Secret Police, 1945–1960
“The book is beautifully written and plotted with a touch of genius.”—Fred E. Fisk, Professor of South-East Asian Studies, Australian National University
“A vibrant and sensitive account of what it was like to be in Malaya during the most difficult stage of the Emergency”—Sir Phillip Moore, former Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II
Moore, former Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II To order, go to: http://www.monsoonbooks.com. sg/bookpage_0823825.html or write to Monsoon Books, 52 Telok Blangah Road, #03-05 Telok Blangah House, Singapore 098829.
Freddie’s three other books are Annals of the Purple City, which was inspired by a sojourn in Macau, where he studied Chinese, published in 1995; The Arthuriad of Catumandus (1996); and, more recently, The Rape of Rye.