In 1953, Peter Mooney, an adventurous young Irishman and newly qualified advocate — the Scottish equivalent of a barrister — decided to forsake the stately precincts of Parliament House and the Advocates Library in the historic city of Edinburgh and accept the position of Crown Counsel, Sarawak in far-off Borneo. All thoughts of returning to the elegant world of Edinburgh were soon forgotten, however, as he became Read More

Considered one of the world’s most popular holiday destinations, the tropical island of Bali in Indonesia has long been the site for Western fantasies about paradise. Millions of tourists visit the Island of the Gods every year, from families treating the kids to a beach holiday to single men looking for cheap booze and sex. And for many young Westerners and Singaporeans, hardcore partying Read More

The surreal true story of how a Western teenager came of age in 1960s Bangkok, turned international drug smuggler and walked the prison yards of Thailand’s notorious “Bangkok Hilton”

It is 1967 Bangkok, the Summer of Love, and for teenager Jon Cole, son of a US Green Beret colonel serving in the Vietnam War, life as a young Westerner in the City of Angels is sweeter than mangoes on sticky rice with coconut milk … until he is introduced to the infamous House of Lek. Drawn to the underbelly of Bangkok, Read More

As the writer Martin Bradley unwittingly discovers, there is nothing quite like uprooting yourself from your home of fifty-four years in suburban, temperate England and transplanting yourself into rural, equatorial Malaysia.

Bradley attempts to make a new life for himself in provincial Malaysia, living with poisonous snakes, Read More

Klong Prem prison, Thailand. The “Bangkok Hilton”, where 600 foreigners among the 12,000 inmates of this walled prison city also wait and rot. Among the tragic, ruthless and forgotten, one man resolves to do what no other has done: escape. This is the true story of drug smuggler David McMillan’s perilous break-out from Asia’s most notorious Read More

‘Living Fast’ Redefined As Bangkok Hilton Escapee David Mcmillan Opens His Past As A Teenage Drug-Trafficker

In this gripping prequel to ‘Escape: The true story of the only Westerner ever to break out of Thailand’s Bangkok Hilton’, drug smuggler-turned-bestselling author David McMillan tells it from the beginning. Throwing away an expensive education as a teenager then a promising executive career, McMillan hits rock bottom only to shake off the dust Read More

Tropical = Paradise, right? Wrong! Travel writer Stu Lloyd simply wanted to enjoy seamless sunshine, frolic in azure waters with dusky maidens, and drink chilled beers in exotic climes—all at the publisher’s expense. Too much to ask? Apparently so … In this riotous romp through The Tropics, Stu often finds more Purgatory than Paradise, more Hell Read More

“I Will Survive” brings together real-life experiences of love, grace, faith, dignity and courage from 21 ordinary people who have survived extraordinary circumstances. Prefacing these stories are contributions from 5 local commentators Read More

intrepid journalist and bestselling author Gerrie Lim invites you to join him on an unusual road trip, through his adoptive home town of Los Angeles, California, and its deceptively suburban San Fernando Valley—the ground-zero of the ever-booming, US$12-billion American porn industry. His chronicle spans a ten-year cycle, during which he interviewed Read More

Stepping off the SS Hamburg on a moonlit night in January 1901, Edwin A. Brown knew little about his new home—the Straits Settlement of Singapore. Through diary extracts and personal memories, this young Englishman brings to life characters and events in a country few would recognise today.

Life for the early settlers Read More

When New York chef Frank Visakay traded in the sweaty heat of the restaurant kitchen for the glorious tropical heat of Thailand, he thought he had found paradise. Not only was the lifestyle laid back, the food delicious and the beers chilled but he was even attracting the attention of beautiful Thai women.

Or so he thought. With Jasmine Fever, Read More

The tragic irony of America’s military adventure in Viet Nam lies in the fact that the two countires were fighting different wars. The Americans were fighting to sever the head of a communist monster they saw as intent on world domination and enslavement to the State. The Vietnamese, in contrast, were fighting to reclaim their right to self-determination Read More

This is a true story of 1930s Malaysia, of jungle operations, submarines and spies in WWII, and of the postwar Malayan Emergency, as experienced by an extraordinary man. Read More

This is about how Andrew Hicks met Cat, a ‘Thai girl’ half his age and how they set up home together in her village out in the rice fields of North Eastern Thailand. He’ll tell you of toads in the toilet, of ants’ eggs for breakfast, how they took up Read More

Andy Botts began his criminal activities as a young “car banger” in his native Hawaii before graduating to drug-dealing and trafficking. After a number of successful and highly lucrative drug runs to Asia (though not without some chillingly close calls), Botts was betrayed by a close associate. Arrested in Bangkok’s Don Muang International Airport Read More

When Mahita was 15, her teacher at Catholic school in Singapore said she could see the devil in her eyes. While growing up, then raising a family of her own, she constantly fought to understand and control this ‘devil’ inside her. Read More

This is the true story of a long-vanished Singapore and the dangerous carnival known as Bugis Street.

After four years of romping around West Africa and the Brazilian Amazon, James Eckardt cut a raffish figure as he stepped off a sailboat at Clifford Pier in Singapore on March 30, 1975, en route from Manila to Jakarta. Little did he know that he would become Read More

Back in January 1995 in Los Angeles, California, a Singaporean pornstar named Annabel Chong took cultural rebellion to an extreme, on terms that had never been negotiated before. She was filmed having sex with a long receiving line of men, Read More

In So Long! I’ll Be Back in 30 Years, author Margo McCutcheon takes readers on a 30-year journey through expat life in Asia and off-the-beaten-track travelogue: bizarre characters, adventures, disasters and life-changing encounters in remote places across Asia. Open the book randomly and step into the life of a Filipino girl living and thriving in a city garbage dump, Read More

In 1942 a ship carrying 500 escapees from Japanese-occupied Singapore set sail from Padang for Ceylon. Halfway to safety she was torpedoed and sank. Amidst the horror and confusion, only one lifeboat was launched—a lifeboat built to carry twenty-eight but to which 135 souls now looked to for salvation.

For twenty-six days she drifted across Read More