Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
My friend Marco Ferrarese has published his latest and very very cool travel anthology, The Travels of Marco Yolo: Blazing Trails where Marco Polo Feared to Go. It’s a great read that jumps all over Asia and the Middle East, including some pretty obscure and remote corners, proving that good travel writing survives […]
Continue ReadingThe first edition of The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu, published in 2005 by Dragon’s Mouth Press in HK. Photo by Charlie Londs. The novel about a drug deal gone wrong on the 70s […]
Continue ReadingHere’s my new and very slick professional profile at Clippings.me. Thanks for taking a look. Sure beats LinkedIn.
Continue ReadingA brand new and very kind review of my first novel, The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu, at The Dorset Book Detective. Thanks! A snappy thriller with strong characterisation and witty dialogue, The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu is an entertaining read with as many plot twists as it has droll one liners. Tom Vater’s novel […]
Continue ReadingOne year ago today I got caught up in the Nepal Earthquake. I was covering with 5th international Nepal tattoo convention with Laure Siegel and Dom Pichard. The first big quake took place as we were interviewing tattooists in the ballroom of the Yak and Yeti Hotel. We spent the next four days wondering through […]
Continue ReadingMy story on Mohan Gurung, one of Nepal’s greatest tattoo artists and an incredibly kind and generous man to boot. I interviewed Mohan both before and after the Nepal earthquake which coincided with Nepal’s fifth international tattoo convention in late April. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about the quake and the […]
Continue ReadingLaure Siegel, Dom Pichard and myself have produced ten pages on the 5th International Tattoo Convention in Nepal, Kathmandu and its earthquake aftermath for British magazine Skin Deep. I am especially pleased to have published my portrait of American hobo tattooist Chris Powers, a very special individual, a true outlaw and a […]
Continue ReadingJournalist Laure Siegel, photographer Dom Pichard and myself produced 16 pages of features in this month’s edition of RISE TATTOO, France’s #1 tattoo magazine on the 5th International Nepal Tattoo Convention and the Nepali earthquake which took place during the convention weekend in late April. The reportages included a portrait of hobo tattooist Chris Powers, […]
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 currently wrapping up a bunch of stories about the 5th International Tattoo Convention in Nepal and its aftermath. It’s been a pleasure working with French journalists Laure Siegel and Dom Pichard as well as meeting countless interesting and wonderful tattoo artists and punters on the roof of the world. The […]
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