A rotting durian in an Australian city library

‘Gas’ leak: A durian vendor waits for customers at a market in Bangkok. Firefighters were called to the RMIT university campus in Melbourne after a ‘gas’ smell was reported in a library. — Reuters

HUNDREDS of people were evacuated from a library in Melbourne’s city centre last Saturday after a rotting durian sparked fears of a gas leak.

OK, it’s bad. But is it that bad? Well, apparently. The writer Anthony Burgess who taught English at the Malay College, Kuala Kangsar in the 1950s wrote a magnificent book The Malayan Trilogy where he compared eating a durian to “having sweet raspberry blancmange in a lavatory”.