Personalities
Stars, celebs, killers and comics
Thailand’s Last Executioner: Obituary for a Kindly Killer
What sort of cold-blooded executioner 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,...
Suicide Notes on Anthony Bourdain, Chris Cornell, Kevin Hines and the Middle-Aged Plumber Down the Street
On the first anniversary of the passing of Anthony Bourdain, Jim Algie looks at the spiking suicide rate in the West and how a man who survived a leap from the Golden Gate Bridge is leading a revolution in suicide prevention and awareness. My brother and I were nine...
On the Comeback Trail with Singer and Author Dan Stuart
The former frontman of Green on Red, Dan Stuart, discusses the group’s rise and downfall, his 15-year hiatus from the music biz and how personal tragedies inspired three acclaimed solo records and two books. Words by Jim Algie. Some 15 albums and EPs into his...
Eulogy for William Warren, the Dean of All Expat Authors in Thailand
Over five decades in the kingdom, William Warren, a friend to both Jim Thompson and the most famous expat murdered in Bangkok in the 1960s, produced more than 50 books and hundreds of articles, writes Jim Algie, before his death in 2017. When I first arrived in...
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...
Bangkok Expat Tales #1: The Infamous Farang Fights with Lucifer’s Cabbie
Of all the Bangkok expat tales of the 1990s, this anecdote of a Western guy who dared to mouth off and take on an abusive Thai taxi driver is the stuff of urban legends What resident or visitor has not at one time or another wanted to smack or berate a Thai cabbie for...
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...
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