Authors' autographs

I wonder whether today's schoolchildren like collecting autographs, like my friends and I used to do back then. At the end of a school-year, we would happily whip out our autograph books to get the signatures of our friends, teachers and, if we dared, the headmistress and disciplinary master. Our teachers would accompany theirs with words of encouragement for the future, e.g. "If you truly apply yourself, you have the potential to go far." Friends, of course, couldn't resist the opportunity to be cheeky, such as "Roses are red, violets are blue. Even when I'm dead, I'll ingat you." (ingat = remember)

Now that I'm in the writing world, an author's signature is what I'm after. In 2003, in London, I walked into Waterstone's, a bookshop at Picadilly. There in the foyer, I saw piles of the book Alec Guinness - The Authorised Biography neatly arranged on a few tables. I like to read biographies to get insights into the lives of particular people; also to see how the author tells the story of his subject to make it a compelling read. As I was looking at the book of Alec Guinness, I saw a tall man sitting alone in the corner, signing copies of the book - it was Piers Paul Read, the author. I've read his books and recognised him from photographs on those books. There were only the two of us in the foyer at that time. He looked up, noticed me and asked, "Would you like me to sign one just for you?" I replied, "Would you?" He got up, took a copy, asked for my name and signed away. As he walked out the door, he said, "I hope you enjoy it." I went off to pay for the book, happy as anything.

In an earlier post, I related how I got the signature of Tun Mahathir Mohamad on his book The Malay Dilemma. I obtained that of Tun Ahmad Sarji, who co-wrote P Ramlee - The Bright Star with James Harding, in the same manner when I interviewed him for an article.

Riemke Ensing is a New Zealand poet who visited Kuala Lumpur in October 2000. I was one of the guests at the residence of the New Zealand High Commissioner for a reading of her poems and I wouldn't go home without a signed copy of Selected Poems - Talking Pictures.

At a fund-raising dinner organised by the Al-Khaadem Foundation about three years ago, the guest speaker was James Yee, the former US Army Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. His book, For God and Country, is his memoir about the abusive ordeal he went through at the hands of the American government.

Another way to get authors' autographs is to participate in literary events, which was how these books were signed: Shanghai Dancing by Australian writer Brian Castro, Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb from Canada, and The Harmony Silk Factory by Malaysian Tash Aw, whose successful international debut gave hope to many aspiring local writers. 

And there are books written by friends. One special person is Rehman Rashid who signed my copy of A Malaysian Journey; he really is overdue for a second book. 

My friend Peter Anderson, a writer and photographer, put together his 25 years of travelling around the world in Cons, Fools and Friends. I would love it if the book has his splendid photographs too.   

Some years back, I participated in the Silverfish Writing Programme by Raman Krishnan who has compiled several of his short stories into The Wedgwood Ladies Football Club and Other Stories. One of the participants was Chua Kok Yee, the only one amongst my batch who can claim to be a published author with his two books, News From Home (together with 'graduates' from other batches, Shih-Li Kow and Rumaizah Abu Bakar) and Without Anchovies.

One of the most prized of my autographed books is Voices of the Angi by Phyllis Mullinder, the mother of my best friend Christine Mullinder when I was a student at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Phyllis wrote the story of a pioneering family, who settled in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay, when she was in her 70s.

She is proof that it's never too late to be a writer.