When I started to write The Pearl of Penang I was drawing to the end of my Round the World cruise and Penang was behind me. Once I was back in England I thought of returning there and began to make plans to do so. But after more than three months “writing drought”, the book wouldn’t wait for me to make a return visit. Instead I relied on my memories, my photographs (too few), images I found elsewhere, Google Earth, You Tube videos and lots of other research. And of course my imagination.

The locations in the book are an amalgam of all the above. But there are one or two where I drew heavily on what I’d seen.  There is a scene in the book in a rubber estate up in Penang Hill where the planter’s wife has revived a neglected orchid garden. I based this heavily on a “homestay” I visited near Klang, further down the Malaysian peninsula. I took these photos there.

Here’s  a brief extract from the book:

Beyond the lawn, they entered a maze of gravelled pathways weaving between the bending trunks and spiky fronds of palm trees and the big glossy leaves of bananas. The air was peaty, rich with the smell of soil and rotting vegetation. Above their heads, the area was draped with netting, presumably to keep the birds at bay. A collection of terracotta pots, containing smaller plants, hung from the branches of trees. In between the different shades of green were bright splashes of orchids, all shapes and colours – delicate peach, buttery yellows, vibrant cyclamen-like pinks and the softest mauves. In the background, Evie could hear the gentle tinkle of falling water and saw a small pond encircled with rocks.

A significant location in the book is a Taoist Chinese temple in George Town. I made this up as the only temple I visited in George Town was dominated by a giant reclining Buddha added in the 1970s. So I used an amalgam of temples I’d visited in Saigon and Hong Kong.

Here’s another short extract –

The light was dim, provided only by the faint glow of candles and the daylight from the narrow open doorway she had entered through. She squinted to see. In front of her was a small gold-painted shrine. Evie moved towards it and stood for a while in silence, drinking in the calm and quiet of the place after the chaotic scene outside. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she saw the shrine was crowded with a collection of painted figures, the male ones dressed like emperors in ornate robes with long drooping moustaches, one or two goddesses, other figures resembling evil-looking ogres, and among them gold-painted animals such as horned deer or sea creatures. Oranges and other fruits were stacked in neat piles with what she assumed to be votive messages written in Chinese on little cards. The smell of the burning joss sticks was intensified by the perfume from flowers, stacked around the shrine in tall vases. Curved metal lanterns and red streamers hung from the ceiling.

Evie was transfixed by the scene and felt a strange calm enveloping her after all the trauma, fear and bitterness of the past days. Without thinking why, she stood with her head bowed and closed her eyes.

The images I took of the straits between Penang island and the mainland are not great as the weather was cloudy and then rainy in the morning when I took the shots. Much better to rely on other people’s images taken with the brilliant sunlight shimmering over the water. I did go into the internal part of the island – which is hilly and where my character Doug owned a small rubber estate. There’s not much evidence of rubber these  days as it appears more of the area has been changed to the growing of fruits and spices.

The countryside of Penang island is lush and verdant. Not a lot of grass but a richness of vegetation in a myriad of greens. I hope I have done justice to this beautiful and very special place.

The Pearl of Penang is available as a paperback and an ebook – pre-ordering now for publication on December 5th at all leading retailers