His first novel The Wound of Spring (Dennis Dobson, 1960) is set in pre-independence India, in Kerala, (then comprising Malabar, Cochin and Travancore), in a feudal, matrilineal society.
The middle name of Menon was a title traditionally accorded by the King of Cochin, to all Nayar warriors who excelled as scribes and accountants.
The writer of this appraisal first met Menon Marath in the mid 60s when he was coming to the end of a lifelong career as a middle-ranking civil servant.
An elite readership has occasionally sought Menon Marath out to quiz and relate to his vision : of impermanence, of mortality, of justice and of equality; awareness of the tyranny of class, wealth and education; the redemptive power of love and the intimacy of compassion.
He hides this and his general air of agnosticism expertly by weaving them, like Isac Singer, into a flawless structure of his good story telling.