Land Below the Wind

Borneo Trilogy #1

by Agnes Newton Keith

Vintage paperback

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir, History, Biography, Biography Memoir, Adventure

371 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

Agnes Keith was born in 1901 in Illinois but grew up in Hollywood long before "Tinsel Town" became what it is today. In 1934 she married Henry ("Harry") George Keith, an Englishman whom she had first met as a childhood friend of her brother. Harry was on leave from Sandakan where he had lived since 1925 and where he served as Conservator of Forests, Director of Agriculture, and Curator of the Museum for the government of British North Borneo. Sandakan then was the capital of North Borneo, a territory that was an anomaly, governed by a company, the British North Borneo Chartered Company. Agnes accompanied Harry back to Sandakan where she was introduced to the life of a 'memsahib' in an isolated British colonial community in an exotic land. Over the next five years, Agnes documented her observations and experiences in a highly personal series of articles that were published in her first book "Land Below the Wind" that won the Atlantic Monthly annual prize for non-fiction in 1939. Agnes writes with sensitivity and humour, capturing the essence of colonial life from the perspective of an American expat and describing the local people - Chinese, Murut, and Malay - with affection and sympathy. As the book draws to a close and the Keiths prepare to leave Sandakan on home leave after five years, the ominous clouds of war are looming, illustrated by an accidental encounter between the young daughter of the Chinese consul, a neighbor of the Keiths, and the Japanese consul and his wife who are guests for tea at the Keith house. After their leave, the Keiths returned to Sandakan where their son George was born. Soon they were engulfed by war and the family of three was interned with the small British community, first in a camp on Pulau Berhala off Sandakan and then at the notorious Batu Lintang camp near Kuching, Sarawak, where Agnes and little George were separated from Harry until the war ended and liberation came in 1945. All through their captivity Agnes secretly kept notes of their horrific experience that were published after the war in her second book "Three Came Home" (made into a film in 1950 starring Claudette Colbert). Agnes, Harry, and George returned to Sandakan after the war and rebuilt their house that had been destroyed in the war. Their subsequent years in North Borneo were the subject of Agnes's third book, "White Man Returns.".

Reviews

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Land Beneath the Wind is the much reprinted memoir of Agnes Newton Keith, an American married to an Englishman, Harry Keith, who was the Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture of North Borneo, where she joined him, in the then capital Sadakan, in 1934.

North Borneo, now a Malaysian state Sabah, was the last part of the British Empire where sovereignty rested not with the British government but with a limited company, the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company.

Newton Keith was, pre marriage, a journalist and this shows through in the quality of her writing.

She offers not just an outsiders perspective on the native people and fauna of Borneo, but also, and equally fascinating, as an American, on the last vestiges of the British empire.

British "Empire builders", foreign consuls from Japan and China, Dutch explorers, Bornean natives and members of the animal kingdom are all viewed with equal anthropological curiosity and affection.

Her story is intended to show the reality of life in Borneo, as opposed to the sensational but shallow accounts of travellers passing through, and paints a powerful picture of how different cultures can live harmoniously side by side.

"In the bold stories of the Borneo wilds, it seems to me that the adventurers have passed over the most melodramatic scene of all, and the one that needs no exaggeration.

Here is a jungle background almost as wild as our chroniclers picture it. Here are the aborigines, as fierce or mild as they seem. Here is the tangled green of the jungle creepers which have constantly to be beaten back, and the wild which awaits to engulf again the clearing we call Sandakan. And here, living in astounding piece and security, following a social pattern as formal, as pleasant, as gently inflexible, and as uniform as the design on a set of teacups, are the European households of Sandakan.

A few miles out elephants may be seen upon the roads, and orangutans and gibbon apes are one jump away in the jungle, and crocodiles and caught off the custom wharfs, but at four o' clock in the afternoon we are drinking our afternoon tea.

Then, just as the rural pattern falls indelibly on us, and background and scene seem unalterably at odds, Sandakan is translated into terms of Grausturk and played to an operetta score. There are medals and uniforms, and guns and saluting and feathers in hat, singing and dancing and native chiefs. There are Headmen and Orang Tuas, and Suluks and Bajaus and Dusans and Murats, and Hajis and Imams, and Chinese and Filipinos and Japanese; there are the pagan tribes of Borneo and the ladies of Sandakan, drinking tea and eating cakes together on on Government House lawn to celebrate the crowning of a British King. And there in that scene too fantastic for fiction breathes the real heart of a non-racial empire that mankind, could, if he would, build today."

Part I "Those Who Were Not Born There" focuses on the life of the ex-pat community and was the most humorous, with notes of Bill Bryson.

In Part II - "Different Feet Have Different Ways" - she turns her attention to both the native people and also the animals of Borneo, and the strong affection shows through, as well as the quality of her writing.

Part III - "We Eat The Wind" (a translation of a Malay phrase meaning "to walk for pleasure") covers a lengthy trip into the remote Borneo jungle, and was the least successful for me.

Her motivation for both the arduous journey and her account of it, as explained in an imagined dialogue with her husband is sound.

"I like the jungle trips, when I come to know the things I have always wanted to know - the Stygian gloom of the nipah swamps, the murky green of the rivers, the beautiful excitement of the rapids, and the mellow color of sunlight on the backs of naked men."

This country is only good for people who give to it, as well as take from it. I don't want to be a parasite on the country, I want to talk the language, and know the natives, and smile with their joys, and sigh for their troubles as you do. I want to come down its rivers and go through its leeches, and the discomforts, and everything the trip is ... except sometimes my body doesn't do it very well."

But unfortunately the details are a little tedious. The wry anecdotes of parts I and II are replaced with an exhaustive, and exhausting for the reader, daily chronicle of her journey.

The last part of the novel covers the end of her first 4 year trip to Borneo, before a return to America for a break. It ends on an seemingly optimistic - but to the modern day reader very ominous note - as Newton Keith returns to Borneo in mid 1939. While aware of the gathering storms in Europe as well as the Sino-Chinese conflict (which causes her some diplomatic issues given her personal friendship with both the Chinese and Japanese consols), she was clearly not fully aware of the conflagration that was about to engulf even remote Northern Borneo.

"The defense problem was dealt with in the words of a senior administrative officer here when asked what he would do if a Japanese cruiser landed an armed party. He said he would ask them up to tea."

In reality, the genteel world of international tea parties was to be swept away in the years that followed. Newton Keith ended up interred in a Japanese prisoner camp, and her story there was to become the subject of her second book "Three Came Home."

Sandakan itself was to be largely destroyed in the war, mostly by Allied bombing, and the British North Borneo Chartered Company were unable to cover the reconstruction costs, so passed sovereignty to the British Government before, in the 1960s, becoming part of the Malaysian federation.

I read the book on a trip to the current capital of Sabah, Koto Kinabalu (Jesselton under the British, who founded the city). The world Newton Keith describes - of both Empire and native tribes - has passed, but the power of her words still captures the imagination.

[Sarah Booher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book. You can't find it as en eBook but worth purchasing the paperback if you're interested in Sabah/Malaysian Borneo or have a trip planned. I stumbled upon it at a mountain hostel while already in Sabah and read Agnes' memoir as I visited each place in her manuscript. Incredible to see the difference between the Borneo she experienced as a new settler and what it's become today. Fantastic and clever writing style, and although it was written in the '30s, it still resonated with me today. I want to read more of her work.

[Joshua Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book as her scribblings and discoveries very much resonate with me as an urban Malaysian. The mind boggles that where once upon a time, Malaysian life would have probably been rather basic and primitive, nowadays a whole new generation of urbanites have emerged who know little of the wonders and hardships of the tropics. Being accustomed to sterile offices and air-conditioned homes, one of these URBAN tribe people usually flee before the might of a mosquito.

I discovered this book while after a trip to KK to climb the mountain, and I find that the spirit of the book is summed up rather nicely with this paragraph:

"Adventure for me has 3 stages. There is the first unshackled interval before starting when my dreams are bounded by nothing, north, south, east, or west.

There is the second interval when, footsore and insect-bitten, aching-backed and broken-spirited, I wish that I had never come.

And then comes the third interval - and in this interval I know that such adventures are the caviar of my existence compared to which other events in my life are Schwarzbrot.

In this interval the fantastic, the unreal, the magnificent, and the unimaginable, which might have occurred only to other people, are occurring really to me. And then I know it is right that such things must be paid for in discomfort, discouragement, and weariness; I know it is right that they are not free."

[Tamzin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great writer, great topic, loved the book. Not a traditional narrative arc: various stories from her life covering her 4 years in Borneo as the American wife of an English ex pat. Great insights into the three different cultures. I particularly liked the stories she told from other people's point of views: the village elder's story of what happened when white men first came to the village, things like that. Interesting historically too, because it is written so long ago (approx. mid 1930s).

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable book written by an adventurous and good-natured soul about her life in a remote location.

[Lilisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and well-written account by Agnes Newton Keith of the four years she spent on the island of Borneo in the 1930s when her husband was stationed at Sandakan. Witty, curious and practical, Keith’s writing endures even today – it’s quite amazing that her experiences are relevant and relatable in the 21st century. In descriptive and engaging style, Keith shares with the reader, with wry humor, how she learned to live, accept and accommodate for interesting differences in culture and the native way of life. With flexibility and understanding she adjusted her approach to live in harmony and accept local practices and norms, particularly with the various native help and their domestic squabbles and intrigue. Loved her encounters and connections with various animals, insects, etc. native to the area, particularly Jojo, the ape. She was a woman ahead of her time, fearlessly accompanying her husband on a journey into the interior of North Borneo through an area inhabited by headhunters. Definitely well-worth the read for the writing as well as learning about the island of Borneo.

[Rayann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book after having read "Three Came Home," a WWII story about her captivity as a prisoner of the Japanese in Borneo. This story will always remain with me. So, I wanted to read her first book about living in North Borneo pre-WWII. Keith has a lovely, refreshingly honest writing style. She shares her impressions of the British Colonial outpost in Sandakan and then follows her husband on his survey tour into the outback. The hardships of the journey are counter balanced by the beauty of the land, rivers, foliage, animal, and natives. Keith has keen observations and insight into the lives and hearts of the natives she encounters and with whom she travels. Throughout the book, she is brutally honest about her bad attitudes developed when dealing with leeches, flooding, wet and dirty clothing and other travel discomforts. Thus, we can more vividly imagine the challenges of jungle/river travel in a remote area. Her sketches on her journey and her life in Borneo are a treasure.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was curious about this book because the author, Agnes Keith, wrote Three Came Home, one of my favorite books, about her experience in a Japanese POW camp. Her captors had been impressed by this book, her first.

This is the story of Agnes's early years of marriage to Harry Keith, a British man who was forestry minister of Borneo. What I found remarkable about this story is Agnes's lack of colonial superiority towards the native Borneo people. She loved them, deeply, and their lovely country as well. No wonder the Japanese admired her.

There is an interesting segment towards the end of the book about a dinner engagement the Keiths have with the Japanese ambassador and his wife. Agnes has already heard of the atrocities committed by the Japanese while invading and occupying China; the emotional tension during the dinner is portrayed with skill.

I definitely recommend getting this book on interlibrary loan.

[Topher Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Below the Wind is a very readable and positive memoir. Keith describes her introduction to life as the wife of the British Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture in North Borneo (now Sabah) in the 1930s, when that country was a British Protectorate. The memoir provides descriptions of the local residents, the tropical surroundings, the native flora and fauna, and the expatriate social structure and etiquette of bureaucrats and their spouses. Keith is at her best when describing an extended jungle trip traversing North Borneo upriver from the east coast and then downriver to the north coast. The last chapters are prophetic as Japan's war in China casts a shadow over Borneo and other parts of Asia. In the last chapter Keith takes home leave in Canada and the United States and then prepares to return to Borneo. Knowing now what's to come makes reading her next book Three Came Home even more urgent. I just put down this book and have already cracked open the next.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was like a fine wine - to be savored not gulped. I enjoyed reading a chapter or two every evening. It was written with remarkable sensitivity towards Borneo's natives, especially for its time during Colonialism. (Borneo is now split between Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia but at the time was a protectorate of a company. Yes, that's like Pepsi owning Texas.) I learned a lot about its indigenous cultures and peoples. But most amazing was the authors stories of her treks through the jungle. She was an amazing woman to persevere through all sorts of bedlam and privation, not to mention the LEECHES!

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book out of nowhere thanks to my younger sister who has a knack for finding the rare, but great read.

A young American woman in the 30s who leaves with her British husband for Borneo. She thrives and loves the land and the people for a five year run, back when the British empire was still the force to be reckoned with. Along with its stuffiness, classism, etc.

Keith deals with it all in a humorous way, writing with rich detail of life in a British trading company town in an exotic setting.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a different era when the world believed in manifest destiny and the rule of the European powers over those less cultured. A newly wed couple, an American woman and a British civil servant, settle in Borneo where head hunters had ruled until shortly before their arrival. The beauty and excitement are evident as they enter into life there with adventures galore. The people, animals, food and exotic flora and fauna all come alive. Well written and a classic of its time.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keith writes with such love of her adopted country. It is especially poignant to read this after having read Three Came Home (about being held prisoner of war during WWII) previously. I feel the loss even more. And even more the chance that one of her captors had read Land Below the Wind, liked it, and was disposed to be not so harsh with her.

[Cassie Forsythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok i took forever to finish this! Not because it was boring but when i read, i can't help reading a book at the pace i imagine the writer is at- i assume Agnes Keith is a pretty poised person.

The narration of her experience is really relatable!

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book when eating at the English Tea House after visiting the Agnes Keith House. What a great book! A well-written, humorous account of life as an American wife of a British official in the 1930s.

[Hazlina69 Aziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good example of how putting down words on your experience will be a joy for one to enjoy and knowledge for others who read them even after more than 80 years later.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

AGNES NEWTON KEITH - LAND BELOW THE WIND 7/10


Book 9 of 2021.


It was Agnes Keith who coined the term "Land Below the Wind" in 1939, chronicling her life experience living in North Borneo (Sabah) from 1934 to 1939 (first trip).


Agnes spent an idyllic five years at Sandakan, sometimes accompanying her husband on trips into the interior of the country. Harry persuaded her to write about her experiences and enter it in the 1939 Atlantic Monthly Non-Fiction Prize contest. The judges voted unanimously for her entry to win, and it was partly serialized in the magazine before being published in November of that year as Land Below the Wind.

The book was an easy read, showcasing her sense of humour, readiness to criticize herself, and for her deep appreciation and vibrant descriptions of her experience. The Agnes Keith house in Sandakan is now a tourist attraction, opened to the public in 2004. 

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agnes Keith married a British member of the Colonial staff and spent almost 5 years in North Borneo in the late 1930s. She gives a peek into the lives of those who lived and worked in the south sea colonies before WWII.
This woman was a city girl, an American. She was definitely out of the loop on North Borneo. The few wives had rigid protocols they followed. The Service forbid a man from bringing a wife to the colony for several years so he could get acclimatized to the area.
The native peoples had their own customs which, here, included headhunting which was outlawed by the British. Most of Borneo was still relatively untouched and the people lived as they always had. All was surrounded by the jungle.
The book is a series of adventures for Agnes Keith from dealing with the native peoples to journeying through the interior. It is very readable. This is a tale about a world soon to be forever changed by WWII.

[Debbie Menk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books simply aren’t written like this anymore. Reading this memoir, penned in the 1930s, is like stepping into another time—not just in content, but in voice. Unlike today’s heavily edited bestsellers, which tend to follow a familiar narrative rhythm, this book retains the distinctive vernacular of its era. At times, it takes a moment to parse the meaning, but that only adds to the charm.

Mrs. Keith was undeniably adventurous. Some would call her brave—and she was—but I often found myself thinking she was also a touch foolhardy. Or perhaps just fiercely determined not to let her gender limit her choices. There are many things she did that I wouldn’t even consider attempting, and yet that’s part of what makes her story so captivating.

This is a fascinating glimpse into a far-off place—one many of us couldn’t locate on a map—and into a kind of life and adventure we rarely associate with women of that time. A bold, unforgettable read.

[Books on Asia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agnes Keith's non-fiction reports on Borneo, where she lived for many years with her English husband, have become classics. I picked this book up in a bookstore in Sandakan when I was looking for books about Borneo, and this book was my introduction to this brilliant writer and accomplished illustrator of her own books. In Land Below the Wind, she writes about living in Sandakan from 1934-1938 among Muruts and Dusun tribal peoples. She took in wild orangutans and gibbon apes, and launched month-long adventures in native wooden perahu boats down the Kalabakang River sleeping under sulaps. What a extraordinary woman and excellent writer.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, this book is from a time and point of view that is NOT modern. I mean, obviously. The things she says, the words she uses, her actions...all outdated and some offensive.

That said, I enjoyed hearing about an American woman's travels in Sabah in a time well before paved roads, cars, easy hotels, and infinity pools. Her jungle adventures, time with animals, and the town of Sandakan in the 1930s were fascinating to experience. She is there as the wife of a British government forestry employee, and her perspective is interesting. I'd love to read a local's response to her observations, either from that time, or a modern one.

[Carol Colfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My friend who gave me this book didn't enjoy it, so perhaps the reason I did is that I have spent so much time myself in Borneo. It's the true story of an American wife of a British colonialist who served in northern Borneo (probably what is now Sarawak) right before WWII. She appreciates life there, as did I, and recounts experiences in the forest and with the local people that resonated with my own experience. Even though it was published in 1939, it conveyed many elements of life there that hadn't changed greatly by 1979 when I first went there.

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intrepid doesn't even come close to describing Agnes Newton Keith's attitude to living in and exploring Borneo. Yes she is part of a colonial structure that is only able to thrive and survive literally on the backs of Borneo natives. She has however an enlightened attitude for her times which combined with a natural talent for writing makes this travelogue/memoir a pleasure to read. The Keith's ended up in a Japanese prison camp shortly after their first sojourn in Borneo. Times they were a changing!

[Tiia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Few years ago I visited her house in sandakan, which is museo these days and wanted to read her story since. Finally got the chance and I was not disappointed. Her story brings you to remote jungle of Borneo on 1930s and with bit of an imagination you can travel back in time. Jungle trek these days are uncomfortable, but oh man what they must have been on her time. And still she wanted to join. She loved her life in Sandakan and she grew fond with people and animals around her. Its a remarkable story to read.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An American woman joins her husband in North Borneo in the 1930s and shares her impressions of the British colonial outpost of Sandakan. After a slow start that almost made me want to put it down, it got much better. Especially loved her tales of adventure camping on untamed islands off the coast and trekking through the jungles of Borneo.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agnes Newton Keith's first book, and a matter of fact account of her life in North Borneo (Sabah) in the 1930's. A perfect companion to Three Came Home, detailing her imprisonment by the Japanese during WW2. As someone who lived as an expat in Malaysia in the 1990's, this book really brought back memories of my time there.

[Shereen Malherbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up after visiting Agnes Keith's past residence in Borneo. It is a light hearted account of her experience of Sabah and I enjoyed reading about what it was like then and being able to compare it to our experiences and the heritage there today.

[Kate McDougall Sackler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of an American woman’s life in 1930s Borneo. At times entertaining, and at others sobering, this well written book brought the people and jungles of Borneo to life.
2022 reading challenge-a fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900-1051

[Susan]

1934-1939 Borneo (read this before reading Three Came Home)

[Milly Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite book