GUiT Night

Good People!

It is the early hour of Thursday morn. We have just got in and eaten a portable kebab (is there any other?) picked up on the way home after a signing session at a Malaysian-owned hotel in the heart of London (yes folks, London's got a heart!). Late night yesterday we signed twenty copies of the book, and then, in the heat of the thing, we signed five more. They were all Terengganu (as is) people and friends, and we were indeed honoured by them all. What a way to end the day before we were kebab-ed into another.

I'd like to thank all you good people who have reported from the shops and made enquiries here and there, and thanks especially to Iskandarsyah for the most amusing report from the front-line on the GUiT guerrilla warfare on the front lawn of a Malaysian bookseller. My friend A.H from Damansara Heights went to his Times bookshop for a copy of GUiT, and of course he could not find GUiT there, so he bought a book by Salleh Joned instead. Never mind, A.H., old S.J's a mate of mine and I'm pleased to be indirectly contributing to his coffers.

For all your kind words and support here and there: thank you, thank you! But I must mention drbubbles whose remark touched me greatly:

"I believe GUiT is never much about Terengganu. It transcends geographical barriers or even regional culture."

I would like to respond to all your inputs someday but for the meantime please accept my grateful thanks: I love you all. (Please see below for more comments by you good people.)

Thank you for all your invites for talks, I shall see what I can do provided you're within 300-mile radius of Hyde Park Corner. And to the kind person who asked yesterday, yes, we might do another get-together in London soon, and please ask your friends to email us if they'd like to come too. At the moment we still have more orders than we have books in the UK, but with a bit of luck we'll have a dozen or more copies within the next few days. But if you're within 300 miles of KL and are still looking for my humble book, please do speak to your bookseller.

COVER NOTE: Many people have asked about that splendid looking house under those coconut trees on the cover of GUiT. Well, I've had more than one confirmation that the photograph was taken in what used to be Kampong Paya (Trengganuspeak, Ppaya) in Marang, Trengganu. The latest to come in with such confirmation is my friend the talented Trengganu artist Chang Fee Ming, and he should know for it was Marang that inspired him in the early days of his career. Thank you Fee Ming, and thank you to Encik Hadi for telling me that your in-laws used to live just a few doors away from there. Kampung Paya is, alas, no more.