The Hour Before Dawn

by Sara MacDonald

  I am very grateful to my two taxi drivers, Sebastian, (Christian) and Anwall (Muslim) in Port Dickson. They entered enthusiastically into my search for a past I would never have found on my own, for it hardly exists anymore, unless you look hard.

  For purposes of this novel I have taken a few small geographical liberties with Port Dickson. The old rest houses, as they were, are gone and in their place stand modern red tiled, pagoda roofed houses. The lonely atmospheric road to Tanjung Tuan Lighthouse is now surfaced, but still lies through the jungle full of monkeys and strange birds and still brought me out in goose bumps. The steps from the beach have disappeared or perhaps they only existed in memory. The half moon curve of beach with spider crabs remains, but the sea is not as blue as I remember.

  Despite seeing the west coast of Malaysia as it is now, in 2005, it remains the same as ever it was behind my eyelids. That place, that time.

  About the Author

  THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN

  Sara MacDonald was born in Yorkshire and travelled extensively as a forces child. She attended drama school in London and worked in television and theatre before she married, living abroad for many years before moving to Cornwall with her two sons.

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  By the same author

  Sea Music

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  Copyright

  HarperCollinsPublishers

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  A paperback original

  Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2005

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  Copyright © Sara MacDonald 2005

  Sara MacDonald asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  Extracts from The Four Quartets by TS Eliot reproduced by permission of Faber and Faber.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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  EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-36258-5

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