SHAZMIN Shamsuddin catches up with author Tunku Halim, who has finally come home to roost after many years abroad. 'My Lovely Skull & Other Skeletons' is Tunku Halim's latest dark offering of nasty tales for horror fans everywhere.
Tunku Halim shares his surprising discoveries when he embarked on writing his father’s biography, titled 'Tunku Abdullah – A Passion for Life' (1998), which was reissued as 'A Prince Called Charlie' (2018). His father, Tunku Abdullah, from the Negri Sembilan royal family, was one of many children who were taken to Japan during the Japanese Occupation, to be reeducated and molded for a career in administration for a Japanese run Malaya.
He reveals how Charles Dickens inspired his children’s encyclopedia of Malaysia and how his concern for the waistlines of Malaysians compelled him to write 'So Fat Lah! – 30 Perfect Ways to a Slimmer You' (2016), and cookbook titled 'So Fat Lah! Cookbook with Christina Hiew' (2018).
It was a story-writing competition in a local daily that fueled his passion for short story writing – and horror – a genre that came easily to him.
Tunku Halim waxes lyrically on literary snobbery, critical success versus book sales, and if a spirit attachment from a university Ouija board experience has been the monster he has been feeding as the source of his macabre interest in all things horror. – The Vibes, January 25, 2023
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