Pascal Khoo Thwe – författare

The astonishing story of a young man’s upbringing in a remote tribal village in Burma and his journey from his strife-torn country to the tranquil quads of Cambridge.In lyrical prose, Pascal Khoo Thwe describes his childhood as a member of the Padaung hill tribe, where ancestor worship and communion with spirits blended with the tribe’s recent conversion to Christianity. In the 1930s, Pascal’s grandfather captured an Italian Jesuit, mistaking him for a giant or a wild beast; the Jesuit in turn converted the tribe. (The Padaung are famous for their ‘giraffe women’ – so-called because their necks are ritually elongated with ornamental copper rings. Pascal’s grandmother had been exhibited in a touring circus in England as a ‘freak’.)Pascal developed a love of the English language through listening to the BBC World Service, and it was while working as a waiter in Mandalay to pay for his studies that he met the Cambridge don John Casey, who was to prove his saviour. The brutal military regime of Ne Win cracked down on ‘dissidents’ in the late 1980s.Pascal’s girlfriend was raped and murdered by soldiers, and Pascal took to the jungle with a guerrilla army. How he was eventually rescued with Casey’s help is a dramatic story, which ends with his admission to Cambridge to study his great love, English literature.

Switch up your bedtime reading with these charming stories from Myanmar!The stories in this beautifully illustrated children's book have been passed down for generations and were told to author Pascal Khoo Thwe by his grandmother. These traditional tales feature handsome princes, squabbling siblings, greedy crocodiles and evil ogres—all set against a backdrop of traditional Burmese village life.The eight delightful stories in this book include:"The Seven Sisters" - Forced to transform into peacocks to escape an evil ogre"Let Her Take the Shadow" - About a greedy market trader who learns a lesson when she tries to charge a poor man for enjoying the smell of her delicious fried fish"The Squirrels and the Bees" - When bees build their hive outside the squirrels' home, they become angry and scared. However in the end, they learn to live in harmony. And many more! Enhanced by the playful illustrations of Maeve Bates, this collection provides children with insights into the culture, values and lifestyle of the Burmese people. Perfect for bedtime reading, these stories are sure to be enjoyed by children and parents alike.