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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
Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? The Lost Christianities
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What if the Christianity we know today was only one version among many?
In the earliest centuries after Jesus, Christianity was not a single unified faith but a chaotic world of rival gospels, competing prophets, strange miracles, and wildly different visions of who Jesus actually was. Some saw him as a gentle healer. Others described a frightening child capable of striking people dead. Entire Christian communities followed texts that later vanished from the Bible altogether.
In this episode of Rearview Mirror Chronicles, Keith explores the lost Christianities buried beneath history, from forbidden gospels and miracle workers to Roman emperors, heresy hunters, and the brutal struggle over who controlled the story of Jesus. Along the way we encounter vanished churches, alternative versions of Mary, mysterious prophets like Apollonius of Tyana, and the extraordinary political machine that transformed one small sect into the dominant religion of the Western world.
Because history is rarely inevitable.
And if events had tilted only slightly differently, the Jesus worshipped by millions today might have looked utterly unrecognisable.
For books written and published by Keith Hocton