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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
Masterpieces and Mysteries - The Ambassadors (Part Three)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Step into the quiet grandeur of the National Gallery and come face to face with one of the most unsettling masterpieces ever painted, The Ambassadors. At first, it appears to be a portrait of wealth, power, and Renaissance confidence, two men surrounded by the instruments of knowledge and discovery. But look closer, and the painting begins to shift. What seems orderly becomes fragile. What feels certain begins to fracture.
Because hidden within the composition, quite literally in plain sight, lies a secret that changes everything. A distorted shape that only reveals itself when you move, resolving into a stark, unforgettable symbol of mortality. In this episode, we explore a work that is not just a painting, but an experience, a meditation on knowledge, illusion, and the uncomfortable truth that no achievement can outrun death.
This is a story about perspective, about what we see, what we miss, and how a single shift in viewpoint can alter everything. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
For books written and published by Keith Hocton