Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
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 ReadingI’ve just been back to Bokor Hill Sation, one of Cambodia‘s most beautiful and haunted spots. Rising a thousand meter above the kingdom’s southeastern coast, Bokor has been developed three times. In the 1920s, the French cleared some of the jungle on the way up, built a road with the help of 9000 kulis […]
Continue ReadingBetween 1995 and 2004 I recorded several hundred hours of music and sounds from Asia for The British Library’s National Sound Archive – material from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, The Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, India and Nepal. I recorded mostly the music of minorities and musicians in remote rural locations. I released several CD collections of […]
Continue ReadingI am 40000 words into Monsoon Ghost Image, the third Detective Maier Mystery. Following the mismanagement and eventual bankruptcy of my publisher Exhibit A, Detective Maier went to ground after The Cambodian Book of the Dead and The Man with the Golden Mind. Now he has a new case. Maier is back. The final […]
Continue ReadingI was recently commissioned by a Thai English language magazine to write a short satirical piece abut Democracy in SE Asia. After much back and forth, the publication decided not to go ahead with the article, apparently due to the current political climate in Thailand. In the West – by which I generally mean the […]
Continue ReadingTONIGHT on BBC Storyville – ROCKING CAMBODIA–RISE OF A POP DIVA, the incredible story of THE CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT & its singer Srey Thy. Here’s my article on the film’s main protagonist Srey Thy and its director Marc Eberle in The Nikkei Asian Review today – Not easy rock ‘n’ roll — the saving of […]
Continue ReadingAn extract of my new book – with renowned American photographer and Lonely Planet veteran Kraig Lieb – Cambodia: A Journey through the Land of the Khmer, is featured in The Advisor this week. Read the text – about the country’s capital Phnom Penh – here.
Continue ReadingCambodia: A Journey through the Land of the Khmer has just been published. It’s currently only available in SE Asia but this will change soon. I am told the book will be available on Amazon soon. It’s been a great project to work on with photographer and publisher Kraig Lieb. And it’s the heaviest book […]
Continue Reading“Cambodia: a Journey through the Land of the Khmer” (written by Tom Vater) went on sale over the weekend in Cambodia. these shots are from Monument books at the Phnom Penh airport. it will be available on Amazon US & Amazon UK within the next month. “Cambodia: a Journey through the Land of the Khmer” […]
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