David Maybury | Blog

Globe-trotting has it down-falls. (Seems to be my favourite opening line) Apart from missing friend’s triumphs – I’m missing disappointments. This week was no exception. Unfortunately Mercier Press have let their commissioning editor go – Eoin Purcell. Irish Publishing has had a tumultuous year and another cutback is unfortunate.

Eoin is a friend – through his work for children’s publishing, with Mercier Press and his encouragement on/offline. He has given talks, written blogs and ranted over breakfast/lunch and dinner about books and publishing to anyone who will listen. And anyone who has heard him knows he has endless ideas/opinions about the trade.

And now he is for hire.

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Can you tell which one is Robert??

Globe-trotting has it down-falls. It means that we’re not home when family/friends celebrate triumphs, graduate classes, finish exams, get tummy bugs or accidentally get their heads shaved… and last Friday was no exception.

Trinity College awarded Robert Dunbar an honourary doctorate – for being the unequivocal voice of Irish children’s lit for more years than I can count. The award is undoubtedly deserved – and as the VHC has already said – “A very worthy accolade for a career dedicated to children’s books.”

From the bearded faraway wilds of South America – congratulations Dr Dunbar

Singapore is synonymous with comics – most of the English manga I have, Full Metal Alchemist for starters, come from Chuang Yi (a Singapore publisher). I just never knew how much of it consumed the city. Singapore is alive with pictures – the train/buses are filled with people reading comics. Posters cover the city with opportunities and courses for artists, illustrators and animators. And the first shopping centre I walked into had the Association of Comic Artists giving workshops to three dozen kids on how to draw, use tablets and write comics. (There was also a small class painting crocs – a bit closer to my own artistic level.)

I got to chat to a few of the artists on tour and got a brief, comprehensive, idea of Singapore’s graphics world. And I was ordered to visit a bookshop – not just any bookshop though – Kinokuniya (the biggest bookshop in South East Asia). It is vast – and packed to the rafters with books, primarily in English but with sections for Malay, Hokkien, Hindustani, Mandarin and Cantonese all thrown in for good measure. (This has been my favourite part about Singapore – it is a huge melting pot of ideas and languages and it influences everything from buildings to food to publishing.)

I picked up a copy of Adeline Foo’s Amos Lee while I was flitting about euphorically – Amos Lee is a Singaporean version of Diary or a Wimpy Kid and loved it. Adeline was kind enough to meet me a few days later to talk books, life, Twilight and food. (The food is good in Singapore. So, so good.)

(More soon – promise!)

It has finally happened… my dream of being mistaken for James Bond Jnr has finally been realised. Well, not quite – I was asked to put the camera away on suspicion of industrial espionage. Seems there is fierce competition in the wilds of Singapore and beyond. I did manage to sneak some pics out though…

Amy Green has hit Singapore with a bang! The shiny, pink, shrink-wrapped cover had a prominent display in nearly every bookshop we were in – while Skullduggery has been surprisingly absent in Singapore and Asia – he has a much larger fan base in Australia. (Finding the skeleton detective next to Nancy Drew in Singapore – made a weird symmetrical sense)

We had a short stopover in Bangkok before heading to the southern islands for sun-shine, general lazing about and the full, quarter and half-moon parties. I didn’t get to meet too many writers/publishers this trip – but it I’ll take any excuse to go back.

Bangkok seems to have always been the worlds stopover capital and the city embraces the tradition, claiming writers Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and John Le Carre among its visitors (and naming hotel suites after them). At a state level, Thailand is working hard to develop a literature programme – it launched the annual Children’s Book Day in 2005. (It’s the same day as Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s birthday, April 2. The Princess served as a judge on the Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury and champions education and technology in Thailand.)

A few books came recommended – including Ngarmpun (Jane) Vejjajiva’s The Happiness of Kati (a little too ‘Darby O’Gill’ for my liking…) There doesn’t seem to be too much UK/US stuff translated for Thai readers – though there are plenty of books on the shelves that I couldn’t read.