Salina Christmas

A kingdom that vanished after the fateful Anglo-Siamese Treaty in 1909 serves as the inspiration for Part Six of The Constant Companion Tales.

The sixth e-book, The Devil from the Deep, took nine months to publish. For the story, I looked at the 1909 Anglo-Siamese Treaty and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The end of an empire

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty saw the end of Siam and the splintering of the northern Malay kingdoms. Reman, a vassal of Siam desired by the British for its tin deposits, was merged with Perak, the state that serves as one of the backdrops for The Devil in the Deep.

Those who follow the series would be familiar with Perak, the stage that I set for ghostly scenes such as the were-tiger murders and the flying blade massacre. There’s more of that in this sixth instalment of The Constant Companion Tales. You’ll get to hear about the devil’s shirt. It’s a witchcraft that makes the wearer impenetrable by metal. You’ll also learn about the misfortune that befalls a soldier who wears the devil’s shirt.

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty saw the end of Siam and the splintering of the northern Malay kingdoms. Reman, a vassal of Siam desired by the British for its tin deposits, was merged with Perak.

The day the tsunami hit our shores

The writing began in London, UK, in December 2023 and ended in Perak, Malaysia, in July 2024. It’s been 20 years since the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami struck this part of Asia. Many weren’t born when the disaster happened. Many were too young to remember.

I still recall the account of a family member in Penang of how her house shook when the family – a mother and four small children – tumbled down the stairs to escape outdoors. An old friend told me how her son, playing on the beach on that fateful day, sprinted to the shore, the waves biting at his heels. He was spared but the incident put him off the sea for a long time. Ten years later, in Brixton, UK, I met an Englishman – an NGO worker – who was in Acheh, Indonesia, at the time of the disaster. He and hundred others participated in the rescue and recovery mission. The disaster changed him forever.

I do wonder if the Asian tsunami affected the worldview of those affected. Are we more compassionate as a result, or desensitised to the pain of others?

I do wonder if the Asian tsunami affected the worldview of those affected. Are we more compassionate as a result, or desensitised to the pain of others?

Reman, the kingdom that vanished

I started on this article on 31 July 2024, on the Warrior’s Day (Hari Pahlawan), the Malaysian equivalent of Remembrance Day. A pantomime was performed before the King and Queen, televised live to the whole nation, of a terrorist incident that took place in Perak in 2000. It took the lives of two servicemen: Corporal Matthew anak Medan, a trooper from the Commando unit, and Detective Corporal Raju Saghadevan, a special detective from the Royal Malaysian Police. The Sauk Siege began with a terrorist raid of an army reserve camp in Grik, Perak, bordering Thailand. Grik, mentioned a few times in the first novel of the series, The Keeper of My Kin, was also formerly known as Reman.

There’s a backstory to Reman. To ease the handover of Reman to the British, the Siamese captured the Crown Prince, who later conveniently drowned en route to Bangkok in an incident. The King of Reman died shortly later. The Queen died in 1915. Nothing was left of Reman when it was absorbed into Perak.

Reman’s fate is like that of my main antagonist, the constant companion. It’s sacrificed for the greater good of others, and then forgotten. But the past has a habit of returning to haunt us.

Reman is a ghost that never goes away. It’s hardly mentioned but it lurks in the corner of our mind. It’s not there but it’s there. The chasm caused by the 1909 Anglo-Siamese Treaty is still felt until today. Now and then we hear about the insurgency in Southern Thailand – in the former kingdoms ripped apart by the treaty. During the Emergency years, regiments were sent to Grik, or Reman, to quell rebellions from the Malayan Communist Party. But we almost never hear of their ally from Thailand, the Pattani insurgents known as PULO. They also had their roots in Reman. Like I said, the history of my country is not black-and-white.

Reman is a ghost that never goes away. It’s hardly mentioned but it lurks in the corner of our mind. It’s there but it’s not there. The chasm caused by the 1909 Anglo-Siamese Treaty is still felt until today.

It’s all in the mind

The Devil from the Deep took a long time to write because I wanted to situate the horror story within the present time. The story takes the readers to London, Berlin and Istanbul, and then back to Perak and to Penang, where a key event is revealed. The story also explores the disconnect between the world of science and the world of superstitions – common in the present time but not in Ptolemy’s time. Here I attempt to follow the style of Susan Hill by giving the horror a psychological angle. It probably can explain away our fixation with ghosts. It probably won’t.

I’ve always said I’d kill off a key character in The Constant Companion Tales. I’ve done it with Part Six. In fact, that was how I began plotting The Devil in the Deep. I sat down with my editor in London in November 2024 and I told her how the character ends.

I hope those who have sensed the foreshadowing – that’s the readers of The Keeper of My Kin and A Request for Betrayal – will finally find the answer with this sixth e-book.

Reman’s fate is like that of my main antagonist, the constant companion. It’s sacrificed for the greater good of others, and then forgotten. But the past has a habit of returning to haunt us.

The Devil from the Deep, Part Six of the Constant Companion Tales, is now available as e-book on Amazon Kindle (£2.99).