Past Masters
Spotted a couple of books of mine in a second hand shop in Banglamphu, Bangkok, the other day. My first nonfiction Beyond the Pancake Trench (2004) and my second novel The Cambodian Book of the Dead (2013).
Continue ReadingTag: writer
Laura Snook, high priestess of Cambodian punk rock and ace magazine editor – RIP
Laura Snook, Cambodia’s high priestess of punk, ace magazine editor, and a fantastic, sensitive and kind woman and all round Rocknroll lady. What a huge loss. I wrote the following text for her remembrance concert in Phnom Penh in March. Laura, I’d like to quote from a novel by John D MacDonald: I get the […]
Continue ReadingMeet The Off The Beaten Path Explorer: Tom Vater
Today’s interview is with a very special friend of the Where Sidewalks End community. It is my honour to introduce to you Mr Tom Vater. Tom is a published author, a long time journalist in the field, co-owner of a publishing house “Crime Wave Press”, and a long time explorer of the world, with a […]
Continue ReadingInterview by Fiona McVie
I’ve been interviewed by Fiona McVie about my life as a writer. And here’s me with my friend and fellow Crime Wave Press owner Hans Kemp. Fiona: What book are you reading now? Just finished The Butterfly by James M Cain, about a man sleeping with his daughter. Not perhaps in the league as his […]
Continue ReadingTom Vater – Crime fiction writer, Journalist, Publisher – at Clippings.me
Here’s my new and very slick professional profile at Clippings.me. Thanks for taking a look. Sure beats LinkedIn.
Continue ReadingA Day in the Life – Asia, mon Amour
Asia, mon amour. Every time I go out in the street in my adopted continent, I see something that, by the central European standards I grew up with, is outrageous, logic defying, irresponsible, shocking or at the very least unusual. Sometimes it is terrible, at other times beautiful. Sometimes it is trivial,sometimes sublime, at other […]
Continue ReadingA Day in the Life – Photo Moments of a Territorial Agnostic
Where it all started – standing atop a sand dune in the Draa Valley around Zagora in southern Morrocco in 1992. It looked and was unbearably romantic. I can still smell the sand today. Zagora was to become one of the main locations for the shoot of Paul Bowles‘ incredible novel The Sheltering Sky which […]
Continue ReadingTom Vater, Author & Traveller
Tom Vater has a dream job: as a travel and guidebook writer, he constantly explores Asian roads to get the details right and inspire others to start their own adventures. Writer Marco Ferrarese, author of seminal punk rock novel Nazi Goreng, recently interviewed me about my early travel exploits in Asia. Read the full story […]
Continue ReadingA Life Lived On The Road
A slightly worn version of myself nicely captured by the inimitable Viraj Singh at Ta Prohm, Cambodia a couple of weeks ago. Been on the road for so long, 20 + years, that travel has become a permanent state of mind, all experiences are thankfully transient and most reflections turn into stories that continue to […]
Continue ReadingBritish Library holds a significant collection of Lao material – including unpublished recordings of remote populations by Tom Vater
Hmong Lao Khaen player in Vientiane 2001 The British Library holds a small but significant collection of Lao material, consisting of manuscripts, rare printed books, periodicals and post cards, mainly acquired after 1973. However, the oldest items in Lao language date back to the 19th century. The earliest book about Laos is in Italian and […]
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