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Rearview Mirror Chronicles
Keith Hockton, FRAS, is a writer, publisher, and award-winning podcaster based in Penang, Malaysia, with a deep passion for uncovering the stories that shaped our world. As the Southeast Asia Editor for International Living magazine, Keith explores the intersections of history, culture, and modern life across the region.
A dynamic lecturer and storyteller, he speaks internationally on Southeast Asian politics, economics, and history—bringing the past to life with clarity, wit, and insight. Keith is also a proud Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and is on a mission to make history not only accessible but genuinely entertaining for everyone.
His published books include:
• Atlas of Australian Dive Sites - Travellers Edition (Harper Collins Australia, 2003).
• Penang - An inside guide to its historic homes, buildings, monuments and parks (MPH Publishing, 2012; 2nd Edition 2014; 3rd Edition 2017).
• Festivals of Malaysia (Trafalgar Publishing, 2015).
• The Habitat Penang Hill: A pocket history (Entrepot Publishing, 2018)
• Alana and the Secret Life of Trees at Night (Entrepot Publishing, 2018)
• Penang Then & Now: A Century of Change in Pictures (Entrepot Publishing, 2019; 2nd Edition 2021
• Bersama Lima - Five Together (Entrepot Publishing, 2022)
www.entrepotpublishing.com
Rearview Mirror Chronicles
George Orwell - 1984 Wasn’t Fiction!
George Orwell didn’t just write about dystopias—he saw them forming in real time.
British writer, journalist, and relentless truth-teller, Orwell carved his legacy not with idealism, but with unflinching clarity. His time in colonial Burma taught him the mechanics of imperial cruelty. The Spanish Civil War showed him how ideologies rot from within. And the grinding poverty of England stripped away any romanticism about the working class struggle.
What emerged from that crucible were stories that cut like blades—Animal Farm, a deceptively simple fable that ends in betrayal, and 1984, a nightmarish prophecy of surveillance, thought control, and the annihilation of the individual.
Orwell didn’t warn us about the future. He mapped the horrors of the present with terrifying precision—and forced us to look.
Join Keith as he explores the haunted, brutal world of George Orwell—where language is a weapon, truth is a casualty, and freedom is always one lie away from extinction.
This isn’t just literature. This is a manifesto for survival.
Referral Links:
For books written and published by Keith Hocton