It seems a lot more than two weeks since I was in Windsor
talking about the life and times of James Brooke.
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| Me, talking about James Brooke |
Brooke is the central character of my first novel, The White Rajah. The story is a work of
fiction, but Brooke was a real person and the main events in the book are all
true. Some of Brooke's comments are lifted verbatim from his letters, so he
literally speaks to us in his own voice.
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| James Brooke by Sir Francis Grant (National Portrait Gallery) |
Why write a book about a man who, although quite famous in
the mid-19th century, is almost unknown today? There were two reasons. When I
first came across James Brooke, on a visit to Kuching in Borneo, I was
immediately fascinated by the man and what he had done with his life. He had
set off to the Far East as a merchant adventurer with some vague notions about
extending British influence. His driving motivation seemed to be simply a
yearning to escape from the mundane world of the respectable British middle
classes. He was, I suspect, the sort of man who would be fun at a party but you
would hardly trust with a serious business venture. By a combination of pure
luck (being in the right place at the right time) and a willingness to take
risks to seize an opportunity he found himself the legitimate ruler of Sarawak
– a small country in Borneo. Although other authors have written about him
(notably Nicolas Monsarrat, whose book is also called The White Rajah) it's been a while since he has been a popular
figure in British fiction. George MacDonald Fraser went some way to remedy this
with a walk-on part for Brooke in Flashman's
Lady, but I thought he deserved more. I spent a ridiculous amount of time
researching his life and wanted to share it with as many people as I could.
The second reason was that I wanted to write a story about
why good people do bad things. I imagined a fictional war on some remote island
where our hero, who had become involved in the conflict out of the best of
motives, ends up committing a horrible atrocity. In today's world understanding
how these sorts of things happen is probably as important as it has ever been.
When I tried to imagine the background for such a story, I realised I already
had it. Brooke was such a man. He set off to be an enlightened, liberal ruler
and, by and large, was. However, when marauding pirates from neighbouring
tribes threatened "his" people he was happy to call in the Royal Navy
to put an end to the problem, which they did with such enthusiasm that reports
of the subsequent massacre led to questions in the House of Commons, half a
world away.
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| The massacre at Beting Marau |
It's easy to take the view that Brooke was just an evil
colonialist, killing the native inhabitants whose country he had stolen from
them. In fact, this is far from the truth. The indigenous people – the Dyaks –
had already had their country stolen from them by the Malays and Brooke, by
taking rule from the Malays, almost certainly improved the situation of the
Dyaks. All the evidence is that he really cared about these people and that is
part of the reason why he was so ruthless in putting down other native tribes
who did not live in "his" territory.
Nowadays it is common to see the whole issue of colonialism
in very black and white terms, but it really was much more complicated than
that. Brooke's story therefore offers an opportunity to see how somebody with
the best of intentions, wishing only to do good, could end up in a position
where it is easy to denounce him as a murderous imperialist.
I'm biased: I think Brooke was a hero, albeit a flawed one.
However, I have tried to be even-handed in the telling of his story. The story is
told from the point of view of Brooks interpreter, a man who is caught up in
the events but still sees them as, to an extent, an outsider. He is so
shocked by the massacre that he leaves Brooke and Sarawak, convinced that what
had happened was wrong.
I hope that you might read the book and make your own
decision. It's available on Kindle for just £1.99/$2.44. Click HERE for the Amazon site. You can also buy it
in paperback.
Loved the book!
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