Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
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 ReadingI’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 ReadingHere’s my new and very slick professional profile at Clippings.me. Thanks for taking a look. Sure beats LinkedIn.
Continue ReadingAsia, 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 ReadingWhere 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 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 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 ReadingHmong 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 […]
Continue ReadingAdvanced reading copies from Exhibit A Books. Chuffed. Quite moved. Quite indescribable feeling… Detective Maier is on his way…. into hell and back….and a book shop near you!!!
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