BOOK REVIEW | A master storyteller’s recollections – told and untold

BOOK REVIEW | He was a lawyer, a judge, an arbitrator and still sings for a good measure when coaxed. But Vadaketh Chacko George, or V George as he is known, has stood out as a raconteur extraordinaire. His portfolio of those he has regaled with his masterpieces include royalty, fellow judges, lawyers, journalists and his friends at the Long Bar of the Royal Selangor Club

George has put amusing anecdotes and incidents in a book which is aptly titled Some Stories I Have Told and Some That I Haven’t which is neither his memoir nor a collection of his speeches.

It is a narration of his many encounters, spiced with wit and humour. But he has not omitted the serious side and has devoted about 50 pages with photographs which trace his personal journey and family life – from growing up in Klang, a short sojourn as a medical student in Singapore, reading law in London, in private practice, on the judicial bench and finally as an arbitrator before retiring at the ripe old age of 89.

In the preface, George notes: “There is an empty space in bookshop shelves, a space screaming for a book with anecdotes that had been told tongue-in-cheek without malice, and thereafter written down to provide some amusement to the reader, that could raise a chuckle or two, if not a guffaw.”

The cover is Lat’s cartoon from 1988 when the Padang was dug up to make way for Dataran Merdeka complete with an underground car park. It is an indication of the contents of the book and dispels the maxim “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

It depicts caricatures of three past presidents of the club – Taib Andak, Harun Hashim and George leading Eddie Flannagen from the Sultan Abdul Samad Building along a swinging walk-bridge to the Long Bar.

George made some landmark High Court decisions but when ...