Welcome to the offical website for award-winning novelist, Mark Bibby Jackson, the Climate-Friendly Travel Writer.
Mark Bibby Jackson moved to Southeast Asia in 2003 as a VSO volunteer. The following year he became managing editor of travel and lifestlye magazine Vietnam Pathfinder. Moving to Cambodia a couple of years later he established AsiaLIFE Cambodia, which was to become the leading lifestyle and travel magazine in the country for over a decade.
Travelling extensively throughout the region, Bibby Jackson was commissioned by The Phnom Penh Post, to write the Heartbeat of the Nation, a weekly supplement on each province in Cambodia which was serialised over 26 weeks in 2011. He also taught young journalists and editors on two training courses funded by the Sasakawa Foundation in Myanmar and Cambodia.
In 2012, Bibby Jackson published his first short story, Always, a Camus inspired novella about a man living the last seven days of his life in a cell and reflecting upon his life and love. Later in the same year he launched AsiaLIFE Thailand, and two years’ later ASEAN Forum business magazine.
In 2015, he published his first novel, To Cook A Spider, which explored the nature of love as well as the food of Cambodia, at least one of these themes the author knew well. The novel, which was part thriller, introduced the character Inspector Satya, who was to be the protagonist in Bibby Jackson’s second novel, Peppered Justice (2016) as well as Unravelling the Web (to be published in 2021).
To Cook A Spider was the national winner for Cambodia in the categories of Best Self-Published Book and Best Asian Cuisine Book at the 2016 Gourmand Word Cookbook Awards. Also in 2016, Bibby Jackson scooped a prize at the inaugural Essex Book Festival Crime Writing Short Story Competition for A Slow Death.
After more than a decade in Southeast Asia, Bibby Jackson returned to his native UK, to continue his career as a travel journalist. In 2017, he launched and edited the travel website Travel Begins at 40. In the pursuing years Bibby Jackson has travelled extensively around the UK, Europe and Central / North America writing in-depth articles for the website.
Responsible travel has always been a subject close to Bibby Jackson’s heart. In 2020, he enrolled on a diploma course in Climate Friendly Travel with SUNx Malta, and published a series of articles on sustainable tourism on Travel Begins at 40.
In 2021, he launched London Begins at 40, a website aimed at both Londoners and travellers to the UK capital.
Mark Bibby Jackson Timeline
2004-6: Managing Editor, Vietnam Pathfinder, Dolphin Media, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2006: Editor-in-Chief, Development Weekly and Business Press, MC&D, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
2006 – 2019: Founder, Publisher and Editorial Director, AsiaLIFE Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
2008 – 11: Cambodian Contributor to the Miele Guide, Singapore.
2009: Editor of When the Sun Awakens for Plan-O-Rama, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2010: Journalism Trainer at the Myanmar Times, funded by the Sasakawa Foundation; Columnist for the Phnom Penh Post and Myanmar Times, writing The Bib on the 2010 World Cup.
2011: Special Correspondent for the Phnom Penh Post, writing Heartbeat of the Nation; Editor of Mekong: Unravel the Mystery for Plan-O-Rama, Hanoi, Vietnam. Journalism Trainer for MEDIAR, Phnom Penh.
2012: Publication of Always, a novella; 2012: Launch of AsiaLIFE Thailand.
2013: Launch of Horizon Thailand.
2015: Launch of ASEAN Forum; Publication of To Cook A Spider, a novel.
2016: Winner of award at Essex Book Festival Crime Writing Short Story Competition for A Slow Death; Publication of Peppered Justice.
2017: To Cook A Spider is the national winner for Cambodia in the categories of Best Self-Published Book and Best Asian Cuisine Book at the 2016 Gourmand Word Cookbook Awards.
2017: Launched Travel Begins at 40, a website designed for the independent-minded 40+ and 50+ traveller.
2021: Launched London Begins at 40 lifestyle and travel website to provide information on what to do in London for both Londoners and visitors to the capital.
2021: Launched and edited eXist : the Climate Friendly Travel Bulletin for SunX Malta.
2022: Launched Cambodia Begins at 40 lifestyle and travel website aimed at Cambodians and both expats and travellers to Cambodia.
2022: Graduated in Climate Friendly Travel from the ITS Malta.
2022: Elected Chair of Destination Mekong.
2023: Published Unravelling the Web, the third in the Inspector Satya Cambodian triology, following on from To Cook a Spider and Peppered Justice, as well as The Circle Line, a novel set in London and Chile at the end of the 20th Century.
2023: Director of Communications for British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW).