Beneath The Jacaranda Tree: A Malayan Story of Courage
By Keith Hockton
Cover design by Keith Hockton
Book layout by Adrian Cheah
Kuala Lumpur has fallen. Barbed wire cuts the city in two, and Doris van der Stratten finds herself imprisoned in a world where every kindness is suspect, and every silence hides a threat. As war drags her from comfort into captivity, Doris must navigate a maze of suspicion, violence, and impossible choices.
Haunted by the screams from across the prison walls, forced to survive by playing guest and captive, she discovers that in the darkest hours, innocence is a liability and hope can be fatal. But beneath the falling jacaranda blossoms, a quiet defiance endures, a final, stubborn refusal to disappear.
"Beneath The Jacaranda Tree" is a searing tale of survival and reckoning, where the beauty of memory flickers against the relentless shadow of war.
-------------------------------------
Doris van der Stratten is not a hero, she is a survivor. Swept across oceans and jungles, she is caught in the crossfire of invasion, suspicion, and betrayal. Her story unfolds in wartime Kuala Lumpur, under Japanese occupation, in jungle hideouts haunted by secrets, and in grand houses where comfort and captivity become impossible to untangle.
Doris’s life is a tapestry of longing, exile, and the quiet acts of rebellion that keep hope alive. As occupation threatens to erase her identity, she must navigate a world where trust is fragile, every kindness exacts a price, and even memory can become treacherous.
With prose as lyrical as it is unflinching, Beneath the Jacaranda Tree reveals a side of Malaya rarely seen: a landscape of survivors, ghosts, and the unbreakable will of those forced to choose between silence and resistance. This is the story of one woman’s endurance, and the indelible mark she leaves on a country that never truly claimed her.
“They think I do not see what is happening. That I have chosen this, but there is no choosing when you are surrounded by barbed wire and guns. They give me perfume and silk and they think it buys silence. But I hear the cries from the prison across the street day and night. I see what they do to the men and women they question.
I am not one of them. I never was. But now I’m no longer one of us either. The war takes your name, your past, and your future. You are a woman alone, caught between the violence of men. There is nothing more terrifying.”
—Doris van der Stratten, 1942
Contents
-------------------------------------
Preface : The Shape of Silence ix
Introduction: The Muddy Confluence xii
Chapter One: The Quiet Weight of Small Beginnings 1
Chapter Two: Inheritance of Rain 13
Chapter Three: A Landscape of Shadows 19
Chapter Four: Becoming Ghost 29
Chapter Five: The Gilded Cage on Penang Road 35
Chapter Six: Shadows Over the Padang 43
Chapter Seven: Judgement Day 53
Chapter Eight: A Verdict of Shadows 61
Chapter Nine: The Aftermath of Shadows 67
Chapter Ten: MI6 73
Epilogue: The Quiet Remains 77
Beneath The Jacaranda Tree: A Malayan Story of Courage
By Keith Hockton
July 2025, Entrepot Publishing Sdn Bhd
Softcover. 13.97 cm x 20.32 cm, 96 pages
Language: English
Genre: Non-fiction, history
ISBN 978-629-99042-4-3
Available at entrepotpublishing.com
About the Author
Keith Hockton is an author, historian, and master storyteller whose love affair with Southeast Asia began more than twenty years ago and has only grown deeper with time. Based in Penang, Malaysia, Keith has spent decades peeling back the layers of forgotten stories and untold histories that shape the beating heart of the region.
From bestselling nonfiction and richly imagined historical fiction to his acclaimed podcast, Rearview Mirror Chronicles, Keith’s work invites readers and listeners to step into the shoes of those who survived history’s most turbulent chapters. His writing is shaped by a reverence for memory, a keen sense of place, and a fascination with the quiet strength of ordinary people who endure extraordinary times.
Whether wandering Penang’s colonial streets or tracing the lost paths of wartime survivors, Keith brings the past to life with a vividness that lingers long after the final page.
Beneath the Jacaranda Tree is his latest novel—a haunting testament to his fascination with Malaya’s tangled histories and the enduring mysteries of the human heart.
Other titles by Keith Hockton include:
- Atlas of Australian Dive Sites (Travellers Edition)
- Penang: An Inside Guide to Its Historic Homes, Buildings,
- Monuments and Parks
- Festivals of Malaysia
- Alana and the Secret Life of Trees at Night
- The Habitat Penang Hill: A Pocket History
- Penang Then & Now: A Century of Change in Pictures
- Bersama Lima – Five Together
- The Pirates of Penang
- Reef of Shadows