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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
Pompeii: Where the Living Turned to Stone
It happened in an instant. A roar from the earth, the sky turned black—and then silence.
The ancient city of Pompeii was buried alive in 79 AD beneath a tidal wave of ash and fire, its people frozen in their final, desperate moments. Some cowered. Others ran. None escaped. The pyroclastic surge hit at 400 miles per hour—incinerating, suffocating, and sealing a vibrant Roman world in a tomb of volcanic ash.
Two thousand years later, the city still stands—walls whispering stories, shadows etched into stone. Loaves of bread still sit in ovens. Mosaics still gleam. And the dead... still reach out from the dust.
But Pompeii is older than most believe. Its destruction was only the final chapter in a long, haunted history.
Join Keith as he walks you through the ash-covered ruins and into the eerie stillness of a city locked forever in the moment of its death. This isn’t just archaeology—it’s a mass grave with a pulse.
Pompeii didn’t vanish. It waits.
Referral Links:
For books written and published by Keith Hocton