Set in postwar Malaya at the time when people and governments alike are bemused and dazzled by the turmoil of independence, this three-part novel is rich in hilarious comedy and razor-sharp in observation. The protagonist of the work is Victor Crabbe, a teacher in a multiracial school in a squalid village, who moves upward in position as he and his wife maintain a steady decadent progress backward. A sweetly satiric look at the twilight days of colonialism.

The writer and critic Anthony Burgess was born John Anthony Burgess Wilson in Manchester. He studied at Xaverian College and Manchester University, lectured at Birmingham University, worked for the Ministry of Education, and taught at Banbury Grammar School. He then became an education officer in Malaya and Brunei where his experiences inspired his MALAYAN TRILOGY (1965). His many novels include A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, 1985, and ANY OLD IRON. In his later years he lived in Monaco. He died in 1993