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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
Black Lei: The Death of the Hawaiian Kingdom
It was a coup masked as diplomacy, a theft veiled in legality, and the death knell of a kingdom.
In 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani, Hawaiʻi’s first and last reigning queen—was overthrown not by her people, but by a cabal of American and European businessmen who hungered for land, sugar, and power. Backed by U.S. Marines and cloaked in false legitimacy, they moved swiftly, ruthlessly. The queen was forced to surrender her throne under threat of violence, believing justice would prevail. It didn’t.
Her appeals to President Grover Cleveland fell on sympathetic ears—but not powerful ones. While she waited for restoration, the conspirators built a republic. And in 1898, without the consent of the Hawaiian people—who had begged, petitioned, resisted—annexation was complete. The flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom was lowered. The Stars and Stripes were raised.
This is not just a story of political upheaval. It is the slow strangling of a sovereign nation under the boot of imperial ambition.
Join Keith as he unearths the dark, haunting story of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s fall—a tale of betrayal, resilience, and the voice of a queen silenced, but never forgotten.
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For books written and published by Keith Hocton