Return of the White Leopard

Lobert and Liz as seen by
the White Leopard in '52

I unpack the two books and place them carefully on the dining room table. 

The Asian Wall Street Journal described A Woman of Bangkok as ‘Among the ten finest novels written about Asia.’ They were right. It’s superbly realised fifties urban Bangkok – from both a Western and Thai POV – describes a lost world of dance halls, ticals, squalor and ‘Lobert’ Taylor starring in Ivanhoe. Vilai the White Leopard is memorably immoral; sixty years on, her casual subversion of popular Buddhist values for her own ends is uncannily modern.  



1985 edition Duang Kamol

 My dog-eared copy of A Woman of Bangkok was lost in the floods in Ayutthaya along with so much else. Sad to report the cover for the 2012 reprint by Monsoon Books no longer features the striking fifties- style pastels artwork I really liked. Instead a sultry black and white woman stares back at the reader, in admonishment it seems to me. One thing the reprint does have over my old copy are the notes on the author, Jack Reynolds. I don’t remember these in the earlier edition. What an amazing character Jack was. How I wish I could have met the guy and shot the breeze with him over a couple of cold beers. 

Oh, yes, and Penguin have also reprinted Mason’s The World of Suzie Wong. I well remember the film version, starring William Holden as the American artist. Watched it as a teenager. Never read the book, though. The cover art for the reprint is wonderfully retro. I don’t know anything about fifties Hong Kong from a ‘yum-yum’ POV so It will be interesting to read this and compare to my thrice-read copy of Gweilo, Martin Booth’s beautifully written account of his time in British HK when he was a schoolboy.

Infamous Nam Kok Hotel in HK

A Woman of Bangkok, Suzy Wong and Gweilo all played a big part in helping me decide what sort of a novel I didn’t want to write – yet another bargirl book set in Pattaya. Instead I’ve tried to paint something much more interesting: a speculative but coherent Thai canvas with a heavy dose of retro noir, Zen and dark comedy. Mind you, that doesn’t mean to say there isn’t a White Leopard or two lurking the shadows.

Meanwhile, as I post this, I am looking at the two books on the table. Crisp; unopened; unread – inviting me into their worlds.

Wonderful.   

 

http://thaigirl2004.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/woman-of-bangkok.html

 

http://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/world-of-suzie-wong-william-holden-1960.html 

 

Conversation with a ladykiller – part 1

Scene:

The bar of the Trevor Arms pub situated opposite Knightsbridge tube station

Characters:
Neville Heath, serial sex killer (deceased)

Jack Fielding, author (just about living)

Both men are standing at the bar, drinking whiskey. 

 

JF: I hope you didn’t mind me using your first victim, Margery Gardner, in Zen City, Iso? 

NH: Of course not, old boy. You were free to do what you wanted with her – I did. I must say that I could just imagine her going off on a jaunt to somewhere exotic like Siam. I enjoyed the references to her coming from Sheffield and frequenting the Panama Club in South Ken, which of course all applied to the real-life Margery. Including her ocelot stole was a nice touch – I remember her wearing that in the Nag’s Head. And she did indeed have nice legs. Good attention to detail, Jack. Well done.   

JF (finishes his drink): Thank you. What about me getting her mixed up in that blackmail scam in the novel, the one involving Henrici and Madam Sin that went horribly wrong?

NH: Well, I certainly liked the scenes in that awful, dingy hotel room, especially the really violent bits. Brought back all sorts of delicious memories I can tell you! But as for her actually agreeing to do something like that…mm, I felt that was stretching things a bit really. You know, Margery wasn’t at all the sort of girl they described in the rags. She was quite an arty Bohemian sort, liked a good time but never a slap rat or a film extra tramp. Just never had a lot of luck with men, I’m afraid.

JF: Men like you, you mean?

NH (grinning): Quite.  

JF: Another whiskey, Nev?

NH: Now that is damned decent of you, old boy. Better make it a double.
 

JF: Didn’t you ask for a double once before?

NH: Yes, just before they hanged me – you know, as in any last wishes.

JF: Goodness, I forgot that.

NH throws his head back and laughs uproariously while JF gets the drinks in