Willard A. Hanna graduated from the Wooster College in 1932. He maintained a lifelong interest in Asia, first as a teacher in China and later with the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Foreign Service and the American Universities Field Staff. Over the course of his career, he prepared hundreds of field reports on Southeast Asian affairs and authored a dozen books on Asia.

Tim Hannigan's first book Murder in the Hindu Kush was shortlisted for the Boardman-Tasker Prize. His second book Raffles and the British Invasion of Java won the 2013 John Brooks Award. His features and travel articles appear regularly in newspapers and magazines in Indonesia and beyond.