East Is East: George Mikes

Mikes visited Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, Siam (Thailand) India and Turkey. At once he came up against an awkward truth - if you are in the East then it stops being the East. The glamour of the Orient is automatically transferred to California - or even to Illinois. So he stopped bothering about points of the compass and concentrated on the people instead. Contrary to expectations, he found them pretty scrutable. Like Londoners, New Yorkers and residents of the village of Siklos in Hungary, they seemed to Mikes to be endearing and funny. None of them liked being oppressed, although some liked oppressing other people when they got the chance. Most of them said they detested Europeans, which often seemed to mean Americans but at the same time were as friendly as could be. They enjoyed criticising themselves but didn't like other people criticising them. In such familiar circumstances, Mr Mikes felt free to be as funny as he liked and so he has been - as well as being humorous and wise. English humor. Illustrated by Nicholas Bentley.