Agnes Keith – White Man Returns

This book complete the trilogy of Agnes Newton Keith’s captivating reminiscences of contemporary life of old North Borneo. She wrote three books on Borneo, which spanned an important watershed of North Borneo history as it became transformed from its isolated existence as an insulated anachronism of the 20th Century into a modern state in keeping with the times.

Each book was a description of life during each of three periods. They were distinct as they were different, under three different forms of Government administration. They were the pre-war years when North Borneo was still under the Chartered Company rule, the outbreak of the Pacific War and the Japanese Occupation, and the early years of the post-war recovery as a British Crown Colony. Pre-war North Borneo was unusual in being the only country in the world that was still run by a Chartered Company.

In this book, White Man Returns, Agnes describes North Borneo as the modern version of a 17th century synthesis of adventure, piracy, business and government.