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• Build a library of books on Southeast Asia – visit Book Bundles for ideas.
Set against a beautifully observed Thailand of the 1950s, this is the story of a young Englishman’s infatuation with a dance hall hostess named Vilai, who all Bangkok knows as the White Leopard.
Acknowledged today as one of the most memorable novels about Thailand, A Woman of Bangkok was first published to critical acclaim in London and New York in the 1950s and is a classic of Bangkok fiction.
Praise for A Woman of Bangkok
‘Among the ten finest novels written about Asia’ The Asian Wall Street Journal (Harry Rolnick)
‘Pulls no punches … a book to remember’ The Age, Australia
‘At times the lying, grasping, impenitent and wholly immoral Vilai becomes twenty times larger than life. She is the real thing …’ The New York Times
‘One night in Bangkok, so the song goes, makes a hard man humble. The city is, in fact, a combine harvester for the expat male heart. Jack Reynolds captures the ethos perfectly in this, the definitive account, written 50 years ago’ The Guardian, UK (Malcolm Pryce)
‘Fascinating … intensely readable’ Gore Vidal, author
‘More than half a century ago, Jack Reynolds wrote the original Bangkok bargirl story’ Stephen Leather, author
‘A well-written and poignant story of a young Englishman’s descent into the world of Thai brothels … the best novel yet published with this theme’ Joe Cummings, author
About the author
Jack Reynolds defied his father’s wish to follow him into the Church and instead worked as a fish trimmer, market gardener and speedway racer before publishing his first poetry collection at 24. A conscientious objector during WWII, he served with the Friends Ambulance Unit in China, where he remained after the war and survived typhus, bandits and extreme conditions while distributing medical supplies. During a stint working for UNICEF in Thailand, Reynolds met and married a Catholic Thai lady, compounding his parents’ dismay. A much-loved journalist in Bangkok, on his death in 1984 aged 71 the Bangkok Post published several warm tributes to ‘Bangkok’s grand old man of letters’.
Paperback 9781915310392 (replaces 9789810854300)
Ebook 9789814358620
Extent 336pp
Category Fiction / Historical