Time For a Tiger

The Malayan Trilogy, also published as The Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy in the United States, is a comic “triptych” of novels by Anthony Burgess set amidst the decolonization of Malaya. It is a detailed fictional exploration of the effects of the Malayan Emergency and of Britain's final withdrawal from its Southeast Asian territories. The American title, decided on by Burgess himself, is taken from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Ulysses: 

"The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world." (ll. 55-57)

The three volumes are:

Time For a Tiger ; 1956

The Enemy in the Blanket ; 1958

Beds in the East ; 1959

    Time For a Tiger, the first part of the trilogy, is dedicated, in Jawi script on the first page of the book, "to all my Malayan friends." It was Burgess's first published work of fiction and appeared in 1956. The title alludes to an advertising slogan for Tiger beer, then, as now, popular in the Malay Peninsula. The trilogy tracks the fortunes of the history teacher, Victor Crabbe, his professional difficulties, his marriage problems, and his attempt to do his duty in the war against the insurgents.