Australian author and former Myanmore editor Bob Percival is honored in a new book published this month.
Opening up Hidden Burma: journeys with – and without – author Dr Bob Percival will launch at 6pm on Friday (January 19) at Sule Shangri-la hotel in the Peacock Lounge, the writer’s downtown oasis dubbed Room 101 in reference to George Orwell’s 1984.
Percival lived in downtown Yangon from 2012 to 2017, establishing Yangon Walking Tours offering tours of the streets of downtown and into the delta.
He began contributing to Myanmore’s weekly guide in April 2013 after meeting Myanmore owner Andreas Sigurdsson in the Peacock Lounge. Later that year his tales of the histories and people of Yangon became a popular feature in the magazine. Then, from April 2015 to mid-January 2016 he served as Myanmore’s managing editor.
His guide to local street life and quirky characteristics in Yangon, Walking the Streets of Yangon, was published in 2015, with the popular guide reprinted twice.
Editor of Opening up Hidden Burma, Keith Lyons, says the new book is a fitting tribute to the author and historian, who was awarded a PhD in 2016 in creative writing.
“More than two dozen writers, local Yangon residents as well as foreigners from 10 different countries who have lived and traveled in Myanmar, have contributed to this book, making it a unique compilation of travel stories, photographs, poems and reminiscences. In the book, readers can get to better know a wonderful person and the country he loved.”
The book is available at bookshops around Yangon, and copies have been donated to English-language libraries including the British Council library, with plans to have the book gifted to libraries throughout Myanmar.
Read Percival’s articles here: https://myanmore.wpengine.com/author/projectsdada/
