Arte: Somerset Maugham and Me—Fort Margherita—Part II

When I visited Fort Margherita in Kuching, Sarawak on the island of Borneo four days before the Somerset Maugham shoot for the Franco-German Cultural Channel Arte to mentally prepare myself (and take notes for a future feature on the BrookeGallery@Fort Margherita), Liza Sedini had warned me that the heads inside the basket in one of the two parapets were now wrapped inside a pua kumbu, a traditional cloth.

Having seen the heads years ago on two previous visits, I admit­ted I was disappointed.  Although as­sured that three or four human heads were still there, the effect of not seeing the actual heads was clearly not the same….You just have to take Liza’s word for it.

My word, too.

Lisa Sedini and Karen Shephard

Either way I was immensely impressed with what they did to Fort Margherita, inside the Brooke Gallery, the fort itself and the surrounding grounds.  When I first came to Kuching 18 years ago, the fort was clearly visible across the river from the waterfront, but now, because of the overgrown trees and shrubbery you can barely see it, which is a shame—this is a major land­mark and should be a prominent tourist attraction.

So I am happy that the Brooke Gallery is giving visitors a chance to enjoy Sarawak history inside the splendid fort, and that this film will be pre­sented to a wider European audience as a re-discovery!  After those two visits years ago, I was back for the second time in four days for the Maugham shooting.

What I didn’t recall noticing on those previous visits were the two jail cells to the left of the exit that led into the courtyard, but Liza pointed them out to me.  She even of­fered to take a photo of me inside….The thought of hamming it up with a big smile never crossed my mind.  I put on a long face as I held the bars as if I were truly locked up.  I posted the photo on Face­book and told everyone that I had been let out on good behavior…but then I got an idea!

I thought it would be great to be filmed inside the jail for the Maugham shoot and talk about how many of Maugham’s char­acters had ended up in jail or should’ve ended up in jail for mur­der or wrong­ful death.  Also, Maugham on numerous occasions had been threatened to be sued for slander since he often wrote about real people, even using real names, like Sadie Thompson who was not pleased that Maugham had not only used her actual name but also made it the original title of his story “Rain”!

On Sunday morning I arrived at the waterfront at 7:30 and was already on the tambang cross­ing the Sarawak River, when I got a text message from Karen asking me if I was meeting the others at Grand Margherita Hotel or Fort Margherita?  Not having been informed that we were to meet there, I told her I’ll just meet them at the fort. I was nearly at the top of the hill when Karen suggested that I meet them at the jetty below, so back down the hill I went.

Then I saw a group of mostly westerners on the other side of the river, heading toward a tambang.  Usually the river ferry could squeeze in 15-20 people, but only half that number if you’re western and carrying a bunch of travel bags and filming equip­ment.  Finally I got to meet Laure, who couldn’t thank me enough for the success they had filming in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca.  She said both Bernice Chauly and Serge Jardin were fantastic!  

I just hoped I wouldn’t be any less fantastic.

I liked Laure right away; she was easy going with this wide-eyed excitement.  She had the natural instincts of a child, where everything is exciting and an adventure.  It was refreshing, con­­­­tagious, too, unlike the usual jaded people you tend to meet and work with.  This was the way to live—by enjoying the moment and seeking out adventures!  When looking back over our lives it’s the adventures and those misadventures (that weren’t all that funny at the time) that we truly treasure.

While waiting for Jason Brooke, the sixth generation of the Rajah Brookes, to arrive, Richard shot some footage outside Fort Mar­ghe­r­ita along with Michel Viet, hired for his drone, giving them a bird’s eye view. 

Michel Viet

Karen, Laure and I were stand­ing at one of the two parapets, enjoying the commanding view when Richard waved us away since Michel’s drone was heading toward us.

 

We ducked inside the Brooke Gallery.

Rajah James Brooke and author Robert Raymer

I pointed out to Laure the cannon that had been brought to Sarawak in Rajah Brooke’s determination to defeat Rentap, a notorious Dayak warrior, a headhunter, a pirate…or an Iban freedom fighter—a matter of per­spec­tive.  It was said that 500 Dayaks had to drag the cannon up a hill to do battle at his longhouse.  I had no idea how many men had battled to get the cannon inside Fort Margherita.

Or a different perspective.

The Brooke Gallery had nine sections and a spiral stair­case between each floor and also the rooftop, each with thirteen belian steps (so 39 steps altogether).  The nine sections are: The Allure of Borneo, Raid­ers and Rebellion, Birth of the State, Building Sarawak, Life in Brooke Sarawak, The White Raja, Sara­wak on the World Stage, Rebirth of Sarawak, and The Brooke Legacy.

      

Rajah James Brooke

While they interviewed Jason Brooke on the pepper trade, Laure came around during a break to put me at ease and to let me know the questions she was going to ask.  She informed me that while I would be speaking in English, my words would also be trans­lated into French and German, and there would be cutaways to other scenes filmed in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca.

Laure Michel and Jason Brooke

Karen, Liza, Jason,Laure, Robert

I ran by her my take on the jail shoot and what I planned to discuss if they agreed.  Her initial concern was that there might not be enough light, let alone room for Richard to man­euver the tripod.

When it came time for my interview I showed a skeptical Richard what I had in mind, and then I got this brilliant idea.  I suggested that we open the heavy wooden jail door per­pen­dicular to the actual jail, that way he could shoot from in front, with plenty of light and plenty of room, and if we closed the match­ing wooden doors behind me that led into the gallery, we would give the im­pression we were filming in jail, with me behind bars.

Richard went for it.  He in­formed Liza to knock to let him know when tourists were coming out.  The tourists would do a double take and give me this strange look as if to ask, “What are you in for?”

Once Richard gave me the go ahead, I went into my Maugham spiel about how many char­acters in the Borneo stories should’ve ended up in jail like Neil Mac­Adam the title char­acter who left his boss’ Russian temptress wife alone deep in the jungle, thus sealing her fate.  Or Warburton in “The Outstation” who knew exactly what was going to happen to Cooper (end up with a kris stuck in his back) and let it happen.  Or Norman in “Flotsam & Jetsam” who killed his wife’s lov­er, Jack.

Maugham wrote, “She had to stay—or starve, and Norman had to keep her—or hang.”

Maugham wrote in “Before the Party”:  “If you try and hush a thing up, all sorts of rumors get about which are ten times worse than the truth.”

In Maugham’s stories, which were often sensa­tional, the truth was usually far worse.  When Millicent confessed to her family what really happened to her “non-drinking” husband back in Borneo, that it was not a heart at­tack that she had claimed eight months ago, nor did he “commit suicide” as they had recently dis­covered from another, but she had slit her husband’s throat because of his drinking.

Maugham was already a celebrated novelist and playwright when he visited Sarawak, so people opened their doors to him, glad for the company; but when they found out what he had written about them, exposing their affairs and a few other skeletons, they were not too pleased. 

Although he renamed Sarawak “Sembulu” and Kuching “Kuala Solor,” the thin disguise was easy to see through.  Even if he changed the characters names, since there were so few Euro­peans in Sarawak on those lonely outposts between the wars, it was easy to figure out whom he was writing about. 

When he returned five years later, those same doors were no longer open to him.  Some were outraged by what he had written and even threatened lawsuits; others were jealous they were not written about!

But those Borneo stories brought scores of tourists to Sarawak!

When I finished what I had to say (saving the rest for the other locations), Richard filmed me from various angles, then had me come through those double doors and walk to the interior of the fort where there were thirteen cannons waiting to be fired at the enemy that never came. 

Up un­til the mid-60’s, they used to have a cannon in front of the fort that would be fired every morn­ing at 5:30 and in the evening at 8:00.  No doubt, a headache for many people within earshot.

Later, I was filmed walking in various locations outside the fort including traipsing through some banana trees….Of course, this wasn’t a jungle (that would come later), but it would look good on film.  Next up, the French were invading my house!

—BorneoExpatWriter

Continue to Part III,  Part IV,  Part V.  On watching the three films.   Link Part I

Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.    E-book orders. 

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

 The ARTE TV report will be broadcasted on June 5th: http://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/071100-062-A/invitation-au-voyage. It will be available online until August 4th!

 

          Joseph Conrad and Me 

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

         Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part II

Arte: Somerset Maugham and Me—Filmed for the Franco-German Cultural Channel: Part I

Richard Cloue, Laure Michel and Robert Raymer at Fort Margherita

Three weeks after receiving an out-of-the-blue email from France, I found myself being filmed in Borneo talking about Somerset Maugham for the Franco-German Cultural Channel Arte for a pro­gram called “The Invitation to Travel” or L’Invitation au Voyage. I was filmed in three locations (not counting outtakes in the jungle) over two days:  Fort Mar­gherita, my office, and on the riverbank at Kampung Git.

Having read Trois autres Malaisie, the French translation of Lovers andStrangers Revisited, Laure Michel, French journalist and cultural documentary filmmaker contacted me with the help of Shan Iman, a Production cum Location Manager & Fixer, hired to liaise and organize their two week trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Sarawak.  Their initial goal was to film a segment on “Sensual Malaysia of Somerset Maugham” (“Sensuelle Malaisie de Somerset Maugham”) and also “The Pepper of Sarawak” since it’s venerated by the great chefs of Paris.

I knew nothing about the pepper industry, even though my neighbor recently started to grow it next door, but I am vaguely familiar with Maugham, having read a collection of 65 of his short stories more than once, his autobiography The Sum­ming Up, and numerous accounts of his life and his visits to Malaya and Bor­neo over the past several decades…

I first became intrigued with Maugham back in 1980 when I visited the old Raffles Hotel in Singapore, before it was heavily refurbished, aware that Somer­set Maugham had stayed there.

          

Then in Penang, at the old E & O Hotel, inside the 1885 Room, I once wrote, “I glanced around at the other hotel guests and patrons…the Wes­terners, in particular.  They all seemed to have a somber, yet dignified look about them like char­a­c­ters stepping out of a story by Joseph Conrad or Somer­set Maugham, both of whom had re­puted­ly stayed there.”

  

After deciding to take up the challenge, I needed to brush up on my Maugham, so I reread The Summing Up, his Borneo stories, others set in Malaya including “The Letter” and a few celebrated stories like “Rain” set elsewhere. 

Unlike Anthony Burgess who taught in Malay­sia and Rudyard Kipling and EM Forster who lived in India, Maugham was just passing through, so he had no vested interest; therefore he could be objective and critical of the British Raj, even poke fun at them.

I knew I could never be a “Maugham expert” in a few weeks, so I de­cided to focus my attention on his two visits to Sarawak in the 1920’s.  That’s when I dis­covered a gem…that back in 1921, Somerset Maugham nearly died in Sara­wak.

While paying a visit to the third White Rajah Brooke of Sarawak, Maugham traveled by boat with his friend and com­panion Gerald Haxton downstream near present day Sri Aman, when the sudden rush of the ten-foot wave from a tidal bore swamped their small craft and sent Maugham, Haxton, and the native crew into the river where they barely survived.

Had Somerset Maugham drowned in that tidal bore, he would never have written the short story “The Yellow Streak” based on that very near-death encounter.  Nor would he have written any book after The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands.  There would be no The Painted Veil, no The Casuarina Tree, no Cakes and Ale, no The Razor’s Edge, and no Ashen­don—and possibly no James Bond since Maugham’s spy stories had inspired Ian Fleming!

Instead of living to be 91, Somerset Maugham would have died at age 47!

Suddenly I became excited by the possibilities.

Then I thought if I could write an article on Somerset Maugham in Sarawak, beginning with that near drowning episode since it was so dramatic, it would help to crystallize my thoughts and prepare me for my talk.

I Googled and read nearly two hundred pages on Maugham from dozens of interviews, book reviews of several biographies, and a few critical analyses of his Borneo stories and his writing style.  I also consulted several books on hand, including a full chapter on Maugham’s writing in the South Seas, and my set of Britannica encyclopedias (from high school)—researching not only Maugham, but also Malaya, Sarawak, Borneo and other related topics, plus I spent a full after­noon at a library…. Afterwards I had ten single-spaced typed pages of usable notes.

This was taking far more time than I had, so I decided to abort writing the actual article until later, and just focus on the task at hand—being able to talk competently about Maugham, not as an academic presenting a paper at a conference, but as a fellow writer (which was why they chose me in­stead of a historian) giving a lively account of his time here and the stories he wrote.

Having written extensively about Malaysia and having lived in Sarawak for ten years, I now had to make this per­son­al connec­tion to Maugham and have that come across on film.

So I broke down those ten pages into five distinct parts:  Maugham Country; Maugham the traveler; Maugham’s ideas for his stories; Maugham being criticized; and Maugham’s jail-bound characters (and those that should’ve been)….I distilled these into five handwritten pages in a medium-size notebook.

Then I underlined the key phrases and quotes and tossed the rest until I got the essen­tial down to two index cards (front and back) that I could practice off camera and elabo­rate more freely while being interviewed.  I knew that, unlike a presen­tation, these five parts were not going to be in or­der—even within the same part—since I would be fielding ques­tions from an interviewer.

Plus I had to plan out which part would be most relevant to where I was be­ing filmed—still up in the air.  So I had to be extremely flexible….That was my plan.

Once it was confirmed (the day before the shooting) that we would start at Fort Margherita (and not in the jungle), I knew I needed to start with the last section first and I knew exactly where I wanted to be while being filmed—in jail.  I just had to sell that idea to Laure and her chief filming operator, Richard Cloue, to make sure it hap­pens.

In the midst of all this, I was in communication with several other writers so Laure could inter­view them in Kuching, in Kuala Lumpur, and in Malacca.  For some, the timing (and the short notice) was all wrong, so they couldn’t commit.  Jerome Bouchaud, who translated my book Trois autres Malaisie and is the author of Langkawi Style, strongly recommended a fellow Frenchman, Serge Jardin, author of Malacca Style, for Malacca.

When Laure filmed him before coming to Kuching, she was impressed that he not only read my book but had it on his shelf next to Somerset Maugham.

I also put Laure in contact with Bernice Chauly, author of Growing Up with Ghosts, for the Kuala Lumpur segment.  Like me, Bernice was reluctant to reply to that initial out-of-the-blue email, so I told Laure I’d track her down via Facebook, and then I sent a copy of Laure’s email and attachment, spelling out their filming plans.  She came on board and Laure couldn’t praise her enough.

I was relieved that both of those interviews worked out well.  They also managed to film inside the Royal Selangor Club, or “The Spotted Dog”, for their segment on cricket as part of the Maugham story and even got to meet a Prince!

For the Sarawak pepper story, I put Laure in contact with Karen Shep­herd who writes for Kino (Kuching In and Out). Another writer had suggested that her husband Peter John Jaban could be a big help, and he was!

Thus began a slew of emails between Laure and me, Karen and me, and then Laure and Karen together as I tossed about ideas, including lobbying for shooting at Fort Margherita.  Initially Laure was skeptical; she wanted to avoid Kuching town and wanted to interview me at my house and in the jungle…

I then suggested Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, a for­mer orangutan sanctuary, now more like a half-way house, only fifteen minutes from where I live.

Soon Karen took on a heavier role as part of the production team and would get paid, too, which I was glad to hear, unlike the rest of us being interviewed—we had to sign off those rights.  

Karen proved invaluable and Laure was so glad I had brought them together.  Not only would Karen be interviewed on the pepper trade, but through Peter, who was Iban, they had ar­ranged to visit some pepper plantations and even rent a longboat for a trip on the upper Sarawak River that I would get to tag along with for my jungle shot. 

My initial reaction, “An ad­ven­ture!”

Also, Laure planned to do a third film on Peter, for a segment called “A Personal Invita­tion,” a discovery of a wild place close to Peter’s heart.

Coincidentally, when Laure arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Karen and Peter were in town for a wed­ding, so they met to finalize arrangements for the various Sarawak shoots—now three pro­jects at multiple locations spread over five days.

When they couldn’t obtain a filming permit at Semenggoh, since they required a full month notice, I suggested we go there anyways for the morning feeding time; that way they could at least film the orangutans as a tourist and work that footage into their documentary.

I also contacted Liza Sedini, the manager of the Brooke Gallery@FortMargherita.  I had done a tiny piece on the gallery for Silk Air for their March ‘17 issue.  Years before, I had visited Fort Margherita twice, so when this Maugham project came up, I asked Liza if she had anything on Maugham’s meeting the Third White Rajah.  She suggested that I contact Jason Brooke, the sixth generation of the Rajah Brookes, in London, so I sent him an email.

Then I found out from Liza, while making plans to visit the gallery to brush up on my White Rajah history, Jason Brooke was flying into Kuching that same weekend for another event.  I im­me­diate­ly lobbied both Laure and Karen that they should arrange an interview with Jason Brooke at Fort Mar­gher­ita—imagine meeting a descendant of the White Rajahs at the Fort!

Karen thought this was a great idea; like me, she was skeptical of the jungle shoot since neither of us could visualize Somerset Maugham in the jungle.  Besides, they would have plenty of jungle on the pepper story, and they would need some town shots of the various pepper mid­dle­men and traders.

Between the two of us, on the day before the shooting, we finally got Laure to a­gree on Fort Margherita and also Jason Brooke to agree on being inter­viewed on the pepper trade.  Liza and I had been keeping him on standby since we knew this would be great publicity for the Brooke Gallery, which had just opened in September 2016.

Since Jason’s flight back to London was Sunday afternoon, it was agreed that we would meet at Fort Margherita after Liza had volunteered to open the fort two hours early, at 8am for us.

—BorneoExpatWriter

Continue to Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, 

On watching the three films.

Book orders for Trois autres Malaisie.    E-book orders. 

  

Here's a link to the intro and excerpts, and to four reviews of Trois Autres Malaisie in eurasie.net, Malaisie.org, easyvoyage.com, and Petit Futé mag.

The ARTE TV report will be broadcasted on June 5th: http://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/071100-062-A/invitation-au-voyage. It will be available online until August 4th!

 

          Joseph Conrad and Me 

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part II

Spirit of Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur to Colorado

My brother, who lives in Colorado, recently wrote that he and his wife were at a friend's house for a party.  His friends had just come back from visiting several different countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur).

My brother said he happened to notice a copy of my book Spirit of Malaysia lying around (I wrote the text), something that his friends had picked up during their travels.  He held it up for everyone, pointed out my name on the cover and told them, "That's my brother." 

They all thought that was pretty cool, quite a coincidence too.

For me, it felt good being the life of the party, at least for a few minutes, and also knowing that my book gets around—from Kuala Lumpur to Denver, Colorado…

Books are available from the publisher EDM.

        --BorneoExpatWriter