Who was James Richardson Logan?
Book title: Spiky, Like a Durian by Mike Gibby
Talk: Who was James Richardson Logan?
Speaker: Mike Gibby
Book title: Spiky, Like a Durian (Entrepot Publishing, 2025)
Location: Penang Institute
Time: 8:00-9:30pm
Date: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Bio of the Speaker:
Mike Gibby is a retired British educator, who has spent the majority of his life in South East Asia, and the last 15 years in Penang. He holds a B.Sc. in Biology, and M.Sc. in Evolution, but throughout his career retained a strong interest in history; after coming to live in Penang, he was finally able to indulge his passion, the result being numerous books on the history of Penang, and of Malaysia. More generally, Mike has been a life-long outdoorsman, with interests in hiking, kayaking, cycle touring and photography. He is married, with two daughters.
Abstract of the Talk:
James Richardson Logan was born in the windswept hills of Berwickshire, where the River Tweed divides nations and heroic legends run deep, yet he devoted his life to Penang and its peoples. Why? This retrospective traces Logan’s progression from his birth in a modest Scottish farmhouse to becoming the most prominent legal mind in the Straits Settlements. But Logan’s journey from the hills of Scotland to the tiger-haunted jungles of colonial Malaya was anything but ordinary. Armed with the idealism of a reformer and the pen of a provocateur, Logan challenged the complacency of empire, pursuing justice both in the courtroom and through the pages of his newspaper, the Pinang Gazette. From defending pirates and sultans in court, to exposing abuse by colonial officials, his colourful career embraced a defiance of unchecked imperial power. Forged in 19th-century Malaya at the crossroads of law, loyalty, and legacy, Logan’s call for justice resonates through time to our present day.
Opening Remarks:
Dato’ Seri Dr Anwar Fazal, President of The Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Society
Event Summary
British former-teacher-turned-writer Mike Gibby launched his latest book, Spiky, Like a Durian, at the Penang Institute on 29 January, 2026.
The conference hall of Penang Institute was packed with local as well as expatriate residents, many of whom were familiar with the string of Gibby’s earlier books on various aspects of Penang’s natural and cultural heritage.
Gibby, a master story-teller, ably demonstrated his talents – honed by 20 years as a teacher – in treading that fine line between imparting knowledge and information and entertaining his listeners – presenting, within 40 minutes, over 64 PowerPoint slides that he had carefully curated to accompany his talk.
The task was considerably eased by the fact that the subject of his book and his talk, James Richardson Logan (1819-1869), led an almost unbelievably eventful life of great variety, productivity, and value. Logan, who hailed from Duns, Berwiskshire in Scotland, became a lawyer by the time he was 17 years old. He went on to use his legal training and education in the service of his civil rights activism, as a newspaperman, and as the founding-editor of, and contributor to, the Journal of the Indian Archipelago.
Throughout his short adult life, which were spent in Bengal, India, and in Singapore, Penang, and Melaka in the Straits Settlements, Logan appeared to have relished defying and challenging the most powerful men in the British empire who held positions of authority in India and Malaya – all in defence of common people of all backgrounds. The targets of his ire and antagonisms ranged from wealthy merchants and senior police officers, to the top-most figures in the judicial order and even the governor of the Straits Settlements.
For example, as Gibby cited from one of Logan’s installments as newspaper editor, Logan wrote: “It has sometimes been said that the Chinese must accommodate their religious observances to the habits and feelings of Europeans because this is a British colony. But the population, not the flag, furnishes the true rule in such Settlements”[italics added].
As one contemporary wrote to commemorate Logan after he passed away in 1869 at the age of 50: “Mr Logan was a friend to all classes of the inhabitants of whatever colour or race, and readily gave his advice, which was always wis and good to all who came to him, and as often as not, without fee or reward.”
On Penang, Logan wrote in 1853: “We have a great attachment ot the little island and are very desirous of doing it all the service in our humble power.”
Emceeing the event was Keith Hockton, the director of Spiky’s publisher, Entepot Publishing. Dato Seri Dr. Anwar Fazal, the President of the Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Society, gave the welcoming remarks.