Authors & Editors
Husna, an author, a writer, an editor, and mostly a traveler
Husna is a chemist, long retired from formal work since 2002. She has an MSc in Analytical Chemistry & Instrumentation from Loughborough University of Technology, UK. She has an overall work experience of 32 years in various fields. She spent 29 years in Research &Development (R&D) work, 9 of which were in agricultural chemistry with MARDI and 20 years in the oil & gas industry with the national oil company, PETRONAS. She was Head of Product Development Group while at PETRONAS Research, managing various research projects while her own specialty area was biofuels research. Her biodiesel research on palm oil methyl ester resulted in an article being written about her as a pioneer researcher in Petronas Resource magazine in 2002. She is now doing what she loves most – travelling and writing.
Writing keeps her mind active, although she does forget sometimes where she left her most precious things around the small apartment. Husna’s experience in R&D work has kept her well-grounded for her non-fiction writing stint. Her first travel book “A Train to Catch”, based on her Trans Mongolian / Balkan trip was published by Partridge Singapore in 2016. She has written an article “Putrajaya, the Smart City” for Malaysian Airline System MAS in-flight magazine, Going Places August 2019 issue. She won third place for the Jasmina Awards 2019, for My Malaysia category for her article “A Kind of Paradise”.
She was a member of the editorial team and contributed essays for the book “Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives”, published in January 2021. She published her first ebook “People & Places: Walk My Journey” on Books2read.com in the same month. The e-book is available on Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Scribd etc. The print version is now available at ILHAM Books, Popular Online, Shopee Malaysia, Amazon Kindle store and public libraries in Malaysia.
She co-wrote the book “The Push till the Last Mile”, with other friends and was editor for the book as well. The book “The Push till the Last Mile”, was published in 2022, which is available at Popular bookstores, popularonline.com.my, Gerakbudaya.com, Shopee Malaysia (through sellers like Mulaqa) and public libraries. She was 2nd editor as well as co-writer for, “Those Were the Days” which was published in December 2024. This book was written with friends from Loughborough University, UK. The ebook version for her latest two books will be made available on her blog, facebook and Instagram soon.
Currently she is writing her 7th book “The Gems of Central Asia” and another book “My Malaysia”. Excerpts from the books will be made available on her blog, https://www.storiesfromtheeast.com/ .
Cyril Pereira, the Journalist
Cyril wrote about the launch of the Loughborough University ex-graduates book, “Those Were the Days” at the British Council on 6th August 2025.
Puan Husna Kassim kindly invited me to the event. I am not an alumnus of the Loughborough University.
The tiles of honour displaying individual portraits with bio on the flip side, were functional and attractive. I looked forward to violinist and music educator, Ms Joanne Yeoh, whom I greatly admire. Alas absent! The outstanding alumni should have been present, rather than be merely decorative tiles. Do they charge appearance fees?
The formal speeches were short and informative, not tedious.
Man of Letters, Johan Jaafar, undertook the socio-historical research into Loughborough, for an amusing view of the English confusion of accents and the British castes of regional identity.
Prabha Sundram (Education) of the British Council outlined seamless tertiary education pathways. She has new initiatives to network all UK graduates.
It was great to greet Datuk Seri Azman Ujang, longtime journalist from Sarawak, who served with integrity as Chairman of Bernama. We meet regularly as a small group of ex-newspaper editors, at the Royal Commonwealth Society Club.
I am glad I came – even if just to connect with Dato Dr Mohd Ghazali, whose library of 35,000 books is a national asset. He is donating thousands of books to a lucky UiTM library.
I requested Dato’ Dr Mohd Ghazali to openan art exhibition of a Frenchman who merges photography with graphics – which I curated at the Centre of Photographic Arts (CPA) at Kokopelli Templar.
I reside in Hong Kong since 1985 (40 years) with wife and daughter. I visit my 92 years old mother in Klang to handle her medical needs and keep her company.
While here, I am called by heritage societies of Ipoh, Taiping and academics in KL, to share ongoing research into the tin history of Larut (1850-1900) leading to the Treaty of Pangkor.
At the International Day of Peace commemoration last week in Taiping, the Ambassador of Poland and Ukraine bestowed “Peace Ambassador” on me with some others, for my work on the Larut Wars and the peace that followed.
Assistant Resident Capt Speedy gave the Cantonese name Great (Tai) Peace (Ping) to the township of Klian Pauh.
A book is targeted for 2026, to rehabilitate OKM Ngah Ibrahim and Captain Speedy – both pivotal characters, airbrushed out of history by the British.
Recently, local China-interest groups invited me to share insights into the power struggles within the CCP, to curb the excesses of president Xi of China.
I was Operations Director of the South China Morning Post from 1985-2001 and concurrently publisher of the regional Asia magazine from 1986-1998.
I introduced and edited data journalism for ChinaDaily (HK Ed) since 2015.
