1981. Burgess returns to Malaya, since renamed Malaysia, for a British television programme called 'Writers and Places: A Kind of Failure' (dir. David Wallace).
In 1954 Anthony Burgess had found himself in Kuala Kangsar, the royal town in Perak, in the Federated Malay States. He was a teacher of English literature at the Malay College, dubbed "the Eton of the East".
Part of Burgess's duties was to act as housemaster in charge of pupils of the preparatory school, who were housed in a Victorian-era mansion known as 'King's Pavilion'. The building had once been occupied by the British Resident in Perak. It had gained notoriety during World War II as a place of torture, being the local headquarters of the Kempeitai (Japanese secret police).
After a dispute with the Malay College's headmaster at the time, J.D.R. ("Jimmy") Howell, about accommodation for himself and his wife, Burgess moved to Kota Bharu.