Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #851116 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
A Malayan White Mischief. 'On Sunday, 23 April 1911, Ethel Proudlock attended Mass at St Mary's Church in Kuala Lumpur. She was well-liked at St Mary's. She helped with jumble sales and had recently joined the choir. After Mass, the vicar's wife invited her to lunch. But Mrs Proudlock declined. She had sewing to do. Then, taking her leave, she drove home and killed her lover.' In the sensational trial that followed Ethel Proudlock, the Eurasian wife of an Englishman claimed that William Steward, a mine manager, had tried to rape her, but the evidence pointed to a passionate affair, and a murder inspired by jealousy. Found guilty and sentenced to death, she walked free after being pardoned by the Sultan of Selangor, much against the wishes of British officials. The event scandalized polite society, and revealed the suffocating nature of expatriate life in Malaya, where the British ruled with an unhealthy blend of suburban aspiration and gross insensitivity to the native population. Petty, hypocritical and terribly unhappy, the British never counted Malaya as home and spent their time wishing they weren't there.

'Cheltenham on the Equator' was rocked to its foundations by the dark, sordid nature of the trial. In this compelling work of social history Eric Lawlor examines Ethel Proudlock's case for the first time since the trial, and creates a disturbing portrait of this little-known outpost of Empire. There are qualities of Somerset Maugham (The Letter was based on the Proudlock trial) and Conrad (Heart of Darkness) in Eric Lawlor's book.

Customer Reviews

Interesting, although a rather dry and drawn out account.
I was interested in reading this book because the story was based upon my great grandmother's half brother, William Proudlock. The book starts off well, and does give a clear account of the events of William and his family's life in Malaya. However I felt the book was very drawn out and did not keep my interest. I would imagine that for anyone with no link to this story it would be very hard to finish.

Speculative history that gives historical fiction a bad name
An extraordinarily biased piece of speculative history that says more about what the author wants the past to be rather than what it probably was. A telling moment in the book is when Lawlor actually manages to inaccurately describe a photograph of William Proudlock in order to paint a pseudo-psychological potrait that 'proves' (sic)his cliched reading of colonnial underconfidence and incompetence. This is tendentious stuff indeed and should not be classified as history in any shape or form. Rather, it is sensationalist, superficial nonsense and, as far as unsupportive speculation is concerned, is in a class of its own. If anyone is interested in the British in Malaya, a far more reliable and scholarly work is Margaret Shennan's "Out in the Midday Sun".

Very biased view of history
The story starts off well albeit a rather lack lustre account of an intriguing murder but then the author goes off on a rant against colonialism and the British and the book becomes almost unreadable. It's a shame because this could have been another White Mischief and the right author would have brought it to life.

As someone who grew up in a colony (HK in the 70s & 80s), I do get fed up with inaccurate portrayals of colonial life. My father was an academic and my mother was a teacher so they both gave back to the community. I want to a multi-cultural school and most of my friends were Chinese or Indian. However, when I went to College in England in the late 80s I had so many comments from people about the exploitation of the Chinese etc. It was ill informed and stupid. Although, this book was set in the turn of the last century, I think the author is very biased in his portrayal of colonial life. He never once points out some of the good things that came out of the British administration and there were good things.

I would not recommend this book and would suggest readers seek a more accurate account of British rule in Malaya.