David McKirdy
David McKirdy is a Hong Kong-based poet and an organiser of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival. His work appears in the collection Accidental Occidental.
The Gods We Worship Live Next Door by Bino A. Realuyo
DAVID MCKIRDY | 05 August 2006BINO A. REALUYO's poetry collection THE GODS WE WORSHIP LIVE NEXT DOOR is an angry and powerful testimony to the centuries of deprivation and inequality that the Filipino people have suffered under the yoke of successive waves of colonialism and corrupt and ineffective governments.
Realuyo approaches his subject with an... [ more ]
Zoom Out by Peter Maize
DAVID MCKIRDY | 07 February 2006In ZOOM OUT, PETER MAIZE's first novel -- and the latest in a number of recent novels set at least partially in Hong Kong -- Maize seeks to illustrate we are never really in control of our lives and that this fact is worthy of periodic reflection, all most effectively illustrated by showing defining instances in the lives of the two main characters as a series of chance encounters or decisions made on the spur of the moment and... [ more ]
I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch by Simon Napier-Bell
DAVID MCKIRDY | 23 July 2005With his latest book, I'M COMING TO TAKE YOU TO LUNCH, SIMON NAPIER-BELL takes the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the shady world of pop-star management and the even shadier world of Napier-Bell himself. The book is a chronology of events in the promotion of the duo Wham and the efforts of the author to make them the biggest act in the world, leading up to their historic performance as the first western pop act to play in China.
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The Butcher of Amritsar by Nigel Collett
DAVID MCKIRDY | 23 June 2005NIGEL COLLETT is ideally placed to write the biography of General Reginald Dyer, the man who perpetrated "one of the most infamous events in Indian and British history", where troops under his command and in response to his direct orders opened fire on a peaceful crowd in a public square and continued firing until most of their ammunition was spent -- for Collett himself attended Sandhurst military academy, was an officer in the... [ more ]
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
DAVID MCKIRDY | 20 March 2005In MAXIMUM CITY: BOMBAY LOST AND FOUNDSUKETU MEHTA presents the reader with an Indian feast of a book: a vibrant, sensual, lively repast where the fare is alternately spicy, savory or sweet in equal measure. He describes the Bombay of his youth filtered through fond reminiscent memories that grow and glow with distance and time and compares this with his experience as an adult returnee to modern-day Bombay.
Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit by Chester C Dawson III
DAVID MCKIRDY | 10 March 2005LEXUS: THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT, by CHESTER C DAWSON III, catalogues the rise and rise of Toyota Motor Corporation's aspirations and achievements in gate-crashing it's way to the high-table of the luxury car market. This book is a detailed assessment of Japanese-style product development, branding and marketing from inception to fruition. Toyota is a classic example of the Japanese business model, a microcosm which illustrates how Japanese business has risen to... [ more ]
Shouting at the Mountain: a Hong Kong story of love and commitment by Andrew & Elsie Tu
DAVID MCKIRDY | 08 December 2004Elsie Tu was a busybody, a trouble-maker and an instigator of riots in the eyes of most of the British community in Hong Kong during the 1960s. She was also a thorn in the side of the colonial government for many years, even sometimes latterly while she was herself a government official. Mrs. Tu (then Elsie Elliot) had committed the... [ more ]
Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood by Martin Booth
DAVID MCKIRDY | 02 August 2004I must confess to a lack of objectivity with regard to MARTIN BOOTH's posthumous autobiography GWEILO: MEMORIES OF A HONG KONG CHILDHOOD.
Like the author, I grew up in Hong Kong, arriving, by sea eight years later than Booth on the Carthage (the ship that he departed on at the end of his father's naval posting). Although I was not a contemporary of the author, I attended the same junior and secondary schools and I am familiar with many of... [ more ]
