The Hostile Sun

Graduating university, Tom Stacey was commissioned in the Scots Guards and aged 19 was sent combat the Chinese guerrilla insurrection in Malaya. On leave from duties for a period of two weeks in 1950, he disappeared into the jungle and lived briefly with aboriginal Temiar tribe. The diary he kept of this journey resulted in this book.

The author, in his introduction, is a pains to point out that while adapting his 1950 diary for publication in 1953, he did not update the thoughts and opinions stated. He also pointed out that three years later, he was a more mature person, with updated views. This is fair, and I doubt anyone really wants to read a revisionist version of travel and encounter. Stacey has continued to a life in journalism and as a writer of fiction and non-fiction, then turned publisher.

Still in a diary form, explaining the days events, Stacey shares his journey by truck, bus, raft and canoe into the Malayan (Malaysian now) jungle, occupied by the time by Chinese communist insurgents who were threatening not only to the British and Malayan administration, but using the Indian tribes to source food and pushing them out of productive areas. British administration didn't extend far into the jungle, other than police patrols to larger villages, and Stacey managed to share transport with them on occasion.

Stacey was interested in spending time with the Temiar Indians - a sub-group of the Senoi, or Orang Asli - indigenous people of Peninsular Malaya. And so his target was the Kelantan area. He was also interested in finding out the whereabouts of Pat Noone, (or in fact if he was still alive) a British anthropologist who lived with and assisted the Temiar tribes in the 1930's. He had not been heard of in several years and there were rumours he had died, though not confirmed.

This is a fairly short book, taking place as I noted in 15 days. In the time Stacey spent with the Temiar Indians he build confidence with them, befriended several of the men, hunted with them, witnessed not only their way of life but also and important ceremony of dancing performed for the exorcising of ghosts. His descriptions provide anthropological detail, but not dense in the presentation and describe well all that he witnesses. It is an easy, enjoyable read.

3.5 stars, rounded down.