Personalities
Stars, celebs, killers and comics
Sunthorn Phu: The Shakespeare of Siam
The birthday of Thailand’s most revered writer on June 26 is an occasion for performances of the work of Sunthorn Phu and remembrances of his legacy, writes Jim Algie in the June 2019 issue of Sawasdee. Looking around the Sunthorn Phu Memorial Park in Rayong province...
Different Drummers book review: The Offbeat Generation of Bangkok
Meet some of the expat authors, musicians and a painter who have helped to make Bangkok into an international hideaway for mavericks and outliers with a creative bent. Review by Jim Algie One of the first expats I met in Bangkok was a fellow teacher at my school. He...
Behind the Crime Scenes with the Bestselling Bangkok 8 Author John Burdett
Before publishing his breakthrough book Bangkok 8, and five later entries in the series, John Burdett lived a life of novel-worthy plot twists among hippies in Europe, the criminal underclass in London, and the Hong Kong elite. By Jim Algie Of all the paths that lead...
Notes on the Late Leonard Cohen and Meeting Him in Montreal
Before I was born my mom used to go and see Leonard Cohen do poetry readings in Montreal in the late 1950s. So I grew up with his novels and poetry collections on our bookshelves. She did not listen to his music though, so that epiphany had to wait until 1985 when I’d...
The Disquieting American: A Bio Sketch of the Spy and Silk Trader Jim Thompson
Before his name became synonymous with Thai silk, the most famous expat in Thai history was a soldier decorated for bravery. In this excerpt from the new book Americans in Thailand, I try to disentangle all the colorfully embroidered yarns and misunderstandings about...
Chang and Eng, the original Siamese Twins
Double Lives: Searching for the Siamese Twins In this excerpt from the book, Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic, Jim Algie examines the remarkable lives of the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, from growing up as poor fishermen in rural Thailand to...
Thailand’s Last Executioner: Obituary for a Kindly Killer
What sort of person leans over a sub-machine-gun bolted to the floor, takes aim at a target on a white curtain in front of a condemned man strapped to a cross, and then pumps 10 to 15 bullets into his back? A family man, a rock musician, an altruist, a boozer and...
Anchoring CNN: Q+A with Monita Rajpal
As an anchor and correspondent for CNN International for a decade, who currently hosts the daily show CNN NewsCenter and the weekly Talk Asia program, Monita Rajpal has covered some of the biggest stories of our time while interviewing many of world leaders, members...
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