The city, I think, to which I have the most unique relationship. (not, my relationship is more unique than anyone else’s—but rather my relationship to Bangkok is more unique than my relationship to any other city).
The first place I ever landed in Asia! The city to which I first fled when I realised that I could be a writer and nothing else! The city that kept drawing me in, day by day, week by week—until I decided to live there for 2017, and which I quickly found supremely amenable to the way I work.
For years I thought I was an oddity, that my love for Bangkok was a defect—WHAT ABOUT EUROPE!? And the reputation that city has among most people! Ladyboys, backpackers, garbage, smog, traffic.
But Bangkok to me is a city of temples, canals, street food, sunsets, harmonious mayhem. It’s a city in which I’ve set sections of 2 of my novels. And it’s a city which continues to enthral and delight me.
Recently I read a book by a similarly afflicted writer (Alex Kerr), and was astounded to find my reservations in the words of another. If only I had listened to myself for the last few years, had backed my own hunch! So I’ve at last admitted it:
I love Bangkok, and it is supremely amenable to my work.
My 2020 is looking like: the biggest New Cavalier Reading Society I’ve ever done. A full, months-long launch of The Creative Art of Wishfulness. Writing a new Comedy Novel. And (with more information to follow) a “Stones of Bangkok” Tour.
It again makes sense for me to move to Bangkok.
And so I shall, and am doing so, in just 3 weeks’ time. Where I’ll begin to research and plan a Bangkok Tour in time for a November-December 2020 season…