Friday 26 February 2016

Indie Spotlight: Allison Izard of Pixalib

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan Daiko interviews Allison Izard, the Hong Kong country manager at Pixalib, an international company providing a publishing platform and online bookstore for visual books by indie authors.

The Frankfurt Book Fair / the Philippines is a focus county for 2016 / call for papers



For the second year, the Frankfurt Book Fair (19-23 October) and the trade magazine, Publishing Perspectives will host the markets: global publishing summit to help publishers around the world better understand and build relationships. It will feature seven important current and future markets, including the Philippines. the full list is:

Wednesday 24 February 2016

This week in Asian Review of Books / Lion City Lit notes

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:



Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore, the Lion City.  A quick note for any expats living here: if you want to join a book group, see my round-up for the Singapore Finder, here

Sunday 21 February 2016

The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is suspended this week. Apologies for the slightly patchy nature of the blog at the moment.  There will be fewer posts than usual from now through to the end of March.  This is because I've got a lot of work on, and I can't keep up the blogging pace. By the end of March I should have cleared my backlog, and generally caught up with things. In the meantime, I will post as and when...

Friday 19 February 2016

Just quickly...

You may be interested in two pieces I have out today:

Where Are the Places in Singapore Related to Sophia Raffles? / Singapore Finder. This is tied-to the UK publication of  Olivia & Sophia, my novel about Raffles' wives.

To buy or not to buy a £50,000 car in Singapore? My weekly blog about life in Singapore -  although from now on it will be monthly, not weekly!

Tuesday 16 February 2016

Monday 15 February 2016

Lion City Lit: Books to mark the anniversary of the Fall of Singapore.

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Lion City Lit explores what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. During World War Two, the Battle of Singapore, from 8–15 February 1942, ended with the fall of this city, Britain’s fortress in the East. Today marks the 74th anniversary of the event, and NUS Press, which is associated with the National University of Singapore, offers a range of relevant titles.

Sunday 14 February 2016

The Sunday Post: Valentine's Day

The Sunday Post is a weekly round-up of items that caught my eye over the previous seven days. But since it's February 14th, I thought Asian Books Blog may as well join in with the annual orgy of hearts and flowers...

Thursday 11 February 2016

Just quickly...

You my be interested in my latest blog for the Telegraph, it's about Chinese New Year this week.  Click here to read it. 

Sunday 7 February 2016

Book of the Lunar Year: The Boy with a Bamboo Heart



All the votes are now counted, and the winner of the Asian Books Blog Book of the Lunar Year in the Year of the Ram / Goat, now drawing to a close, is The Boy with a Bamboo Heart, by Dr. Amporn Wathanavongs with Chantal Jauvin, published by Maverick House (Ireland). Click here to see the blog’s coverage of the book, last October.

Saturday 6 February 2016

Just quickly...

You may be interested in my review of Tales of Two Cities in Asian Review of Books. 

Tales of Two Cities is an anthology of stories from Hong Kong and Singapore. It's in the running for the blog's Book of the Lunar Year Award. Voting closes tomorrow at 9 a.m., so if you haven't done so yet, and you want to support one of the books on the shortlist, get cracking!! See here for details of the shortlist, and of how to vote.