Love & Terror in Malaya

Love and Terror has a historic background: the Malay Emergency; actually a guerilla war fought between Malayans and Japanese occupiers of Malaya (1942-45) that later became a war against the returning British by Malayan communists (mostly of Chinese extraction) and lasted until the late fifties. Spike, a British sapper, together withe two comrades is flown to Singapore in 1947.

The Japanese are still in Malaya, but in POW work camps. Spike soon adapts to the Malay culture, learns the language with the help of Malay friends and lovers, and is transferred to a Malay training battalion as interpreter. He also meets and has an affair with a Chinese-Malayan taxi-dancer, Angelene (a.k.a, Aiwa Kam), sister of Ying Kam, a communist leader.

His first love, the Malay woman, Kamariah, has a young son, Daud, who is kidnapped by the communist terrorists (CTs) in an attempt to persuade Kamariah to get information from Spike about a cache of arms hidden in the house in which he was quartered. Daud is executed by Ying Kam. Spike accepts Islam and marries Kamariah; tries to remain in Malaya, but is repatriated to Britain.

When Ying Kam is betrayed by a comrade who is seeking the large reward offered by the British, he is ambushed and injured, but escapes. Incognito in a hospital, where Kamariah's sister is a nurse, Ying Kam is exposed and captured by Kamariah. She assists in the capture of other CTs and becomes a rich woman.

Comrades of Spike have different encounters in Malaya, and later in Britain. Taffy, marries a Chinese-Malayan and stays on as an estate manager. He is ambushed and assassinated by CTs.

The book, Love and Terror, illustrates many features of Malay, Chinese, and British culture and how they interact. East and West do meet in many instances.