Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
My latest story in Nikkei Asia. I interviewed Thai film director Pailin Wedel about her Netflix doc, The Trapped 13, which features interviews with the teenage survivors of the 2018 Tham Luang cave drama in northern Thailand. “This is a true story of hope and about how hope and faith paid off. It’s about radical […]
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The film rights for my first novel, The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu, originally published in 2004, have been bought by 108 Media. In 1976, four friends – Dan, Fred, Tim and Thierry – are on a bus along the hippie trail from London to Kathmandu. But everything is not going according to plan. After a […]
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The Green Panthers Manifesto The Green Panthers fight against the degradation of Planet Earth by any means The Green Panthers combat the fueling of climate change by any means The Green Panthers safeguard global biodiversity by any means The Green Panthers do not answer to governments The Green Panthers cannot be hired, bought or sold […]
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Known for her “dystopian pop”, Pyra has been driven out by Thailand’s conservatism The video is captioned “UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THAILAND”. Peeralada Sukawat—better known by her stage name, Pyra—looks into the camera and rolls her eyes. “Bangkok babies in Mercedes,” she raps over looping drums and a synth beat. “Rich gets richer, poor gets poorer,/Inequality’s […]
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Cambodia’s once-thriving tourist town rises from the ashes of COVID-19. My latest story in Nikkei Asia. SIEM REAP, Cambodia — For nearly 20 years, the magnificent Angkor monuments in western Cambodia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have been a magnet for millions of international travelers. As the tourists poured in, Siem Reap, the town closest […]
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A protected nature reserve was spared complete destruction when Cambodia’s prime minister stepped in after a public outcry. Replanting has begun to restore the forest – but with saplings that could be for a timber plantation. On 1 August, 2022, excavators began tearing down parts of the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest, an area of 2,300 hectares […]
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Known for her “dystopian pop”, Pyra has been driven out by Thailand’s conservatism The video is captioned “UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THAILAND”. Peeralada Sukawat—better known by her stage name, Pyra—looks into the camera and rolls her eyes. “Bangkok babies in Mercedes,” she raps over looping drums and a synth beat. “Rich gets richer, poor gets poorer,/Inequality’s […]
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The world has lost half of its coral reefs in 30 years. Malaysian oceanographer Anuar Abdullah has developed a simple, yet effective way to restore coral. He tells Eco-Business that no reef is the same, and successful reef rehabilitation depends on cooperation with local communities. Over the past 30 years, more than 50 per cent of […]
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My latest story in Nikkei Asia follows a Canadian/French couple who set out to walk from Europe to Australia to remind the world that travel is more than a commodity. They sometimes walked up to 14 hours a day, got lost in the jungles of Laos and were involved in a fatal bus crash in […]
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Climate change is just one of the causes of severe flooding in Jakarta and Bangkok. Subsidence and over-construction also contribute to the slow drowning of these and other Asian capitals. There are solutions, but they are hampered by lack of funds, politics, cultural issues and obstructive legislation. Read my latest story in Eco-Business.
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