Introduction

The red edition of the book, first published in Thailand in 2004, is distributed by Asia Books to all bookshops, minimarts and hotels throughout the country. The new edition was published in Singapore 2006 for distribution in Singapore and Malaysia and throughout Asia and the wider world. (See www.monsoonbooks.com.sg and phil@mosoonbooks.com.sg) The author is currently seeking a publisher for a possible edition of the book in the Thai language.

My new book, “My Thai Girl” and I” is distributed by Asia Books to all good book shops in Thailand as from the end of March 2008. (See www.asiabooks.com.)

This is the story of how I met my wife, Cat and how we set up home together out in the rice fields in her village in a remote part of the North East of Thailand.

Click here to read the first chapters of “My Thai Girl and I”.

STOP PRESS

'Thai Girl' has appeared on Asia Books' best seller list for books on Thailand (fiction and non-fiction), and is currently the top selling locally published English language novel.

I have reprinted for a fourth time (November 2006) in little more than a year and a half and Monsoon Books have already reprinted within few months of publication in Singapore. A total of 15,000 copies of 'Thai Girl' are now in print.

BREAKING NEWS

Shortly after publication of the new edition by Monsoon Books, 'Thai Girl' was listed second only to Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code' on Singapore's 'Times Newslink' bestseller list, outselling 'Memoirs of a Geisha', Wilbur Smith and other such slow selling stuff. At the end of May 2006, 'Thai Girl' was launched in the USA and on Amazon.

Big Blog Blag!

For 'The Exotic Adventures of a Literary Sexagenarian' have a look at www.thaigirl2004.blogspot.com. My blog is currently listed as number one of milllions of blogs listed on www.thailandvoice.com 'Blogroll'. Totally bizarre!

Critical Acclaim

“Thai Girl” is a story which has great passion for Thailand and its idiosyncrasies.’ METRO MAGAZINE.

‘Credited with opening a window on Thai culture and interactions between Thais and farang… “Thai Girl” has become one of the biggest-selling English language novels ever published in Thailand.’ Daniel Cooper, FARANG UNTAMED TRAVEL.

‘“Thai Girl” is in essence a travel novel that explores Thailand’s complex society through the eyes of young backpackers as they discover the delights of Bangkok, Koh Samet and Koh Chang, and it attempts to explain the cultural gap between East and West through the experiences of a young foreigner and his Thai girlfriend. The author’s powers of observation are remarkable. He writes so well and informatively about Thailand, its culture and the myriad aspects of society here, and for that reason alone, “Thai Girl” is well worth reading.’ THE BIG CHILLI.

Thai Girl is the definitive novel about relationships between Thais and foreigners.
Harry Nicolaides, author of the novel, ‘Verisimilitude’. www.phuket-info.com/harry See ‘The Last Shangrila’.

‘When Fon, the ‘Thai girl’ appears, she takes over the novel and makes it fly. Pretty, sassy, coquettish, ambitious and iron-willed, Fon fairly leaps off the page, a living breathing character. Always there is the delightful Fon, lighting up Ben’s life and the novel itself. The highlight of the book is Ben’s trip with Fon to her ancestral village. The physical setting and the rhythms of life here are beautifully observed.’ James Eckardt, THE NATION.

‘“Thai Girl” opens doors on a world of cross-cultural complexity where misunderstandings abound. Its author is one of few writers who understand that in the Land of Smiles, nothing and no one is what they seem. I couldn’t put the book down.’ STEPHEN LEATHER, author of ‘Private Dancer’ and other best selling novels.

‘Hicks has done very well in his pen sketch of the Thai psyche of the Isaan girl, who can be open and closed, off-hand and standoffish all at the same time.’ Lang Reid, PATTAYA MAIL.

‘Congratulations on an excellent novel that captures the real essence of Thailand and the traditional Isaan woman. I found myself not far from tears for both Fon and Ben at their parting and the dilemma they both faced in not being able to be together.’

Andrew F. READERS FORUM on www.thaigirl2004.com.

‘Whenever I looked up from the pages of “Thai Girl”, I had to think for a few seconds to remember that I was not still in Thailand! I could not put the book down because it so well portrays and then offers explanations for, or perspectives on, the many customs and behaviours I have witnessed but not always understood whilst in Thailand.’ Allan, Switzerland. READERS FORUM on www.thaigirl2004.com.

‘“Thai Girl” explores Thailand, its culture and its people through the eyes of a western visitor, Ben, as he observes the Bangkok scene and confronts the issues affecting a nation in flux, rapidly industrializing and as it does so, leaving many of its traditional values behind. It also explores the nature of today’s young Thai women, many with their roots in rural poverty but with their eyes on the glitter of a sparkling consumer society. Pick up a copy and take a journey of your own through the heartlands of Thailand.’ FCCT BULLETIN. (The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.)

This book seems to me to be really about educating the sex tourist. I think they should make you buy this book at Bangkok arrivals. It might make a few Westerners think twice before getting involved with the commercial sex scene.
Jim, 5 June 2005, www.abajo.co.uk

I found you book highly readable and days after finishing it I'm still thinking about it. Please say you're writing a sequel - I'd love to know what happens next. I thought your Thai characters were very well drawn and Fon certainly dispels many of the stereotypes.

Caron Eastgate James, author of 'The Occidentals'

Anne Merritt, a Canadian ESL teacher writing reviews on www.khaosanroad.com

Hicks addresses the age old question that crosses the mind of every single visitor to Thailand; in a white-guy-meets-Thai-girl relationship, who's really holding the chips? When a tourist splits with his girlfriend on a holiday in Thailand, he finds himself enraptured by a charming-yet-mysterious local woman. The novel's Thai heroine is a multilayered character, at times passive and helpless, at times wry and controlling.

What comes across as a couple wrapped up in mind games will get you thinking about power dynamics in general, and how gender, age, ethnic and economic differences all factor together. The endlessly complex characters will leave you guessing until the very end. Feminists may find this relationship hard to handle, men who date Thai women may find it instantly relatable. Regardless of your opinions on the falang/Thai romance phenomenon, Hicks' honest dialogues and relatable themes makes this book an absorbing read.

Reviews and quotes about Thai Girl

A British backpacker falls for a reticent young masseuse on Koh Samet but struggles with age-old cross-cultural confusion in this sensitive attempt at a different kind of expat novel.

Rough Guide to Thailand, October 2006

On the surface, this is a simple love story but it contains many interesting insights into Thai culture, foreigners traveling in Thailand and the points where they collide. As the romance plays out, issues such as poverty, migrant workers and the sex industry are explored. This is an excellent book for promoting discussion about some of these issues. It helps give a deeper insight into the real Thailand that many tourists never really see or understand.

www.davidinsiamblogspot.com

Andrew Hicks really manages to give the reader a great insight into the mentality of the traditional Thai girl and how she tries to explain the differences in culture and attitudes to the naïve Ben. Perhaps my favourite part of the book is when Fon takes Ben to her home in Buriram province. This is when the author, with his experience of Isaan, manages to afford the reader a delightfully giddy adventure into the realities of every-day north eastern life. Written well, you can almost ear the quack quack of the village ducks.

'Steve Suphan' on www.thai-blogs.com

Your book has already entered the pantheon of 'must read' books for expats moving here and for backpackers staying on longer than they'd planned. Also for expats going on home leave who want to give folks back home a fictional taste of life here. Well done!

Lyle Walter, the Bangkok expat mama on www.lylesinrodwalter.blogs.com

"Thai Girl" by Andrew Hicks describes the encounter of a British guy with Thai culture and a Thai girl he inevitably falls in love with, as well as the cultural differences he faces

www.wcnvienna.org Women's Career Network, Vienna, Network News, April 2007, a report about visiting Thailand which recommends "Thai Girl" as the one book that visitors should read.

WHY DO THEY LOVE MY THAI GIRL?

Why They All Love My "Thai Girl"

The monthly magazine, Farang Untamed Travel has recently described my first novel, "Thai Girl" as being 'one of the biggest-selling English language novels ever published in Thailand', and I'm astounded. Reprinted for the fourth time in only a year and a half, the book has been well received here, but I didn't know it was one of the best sellers ever.

Half delirious with joy, I ask myself why. I've only written books on company law before and should be very dull, but nonetheless "Thai Girl" seems to have struck a chord or two. Messages sent to my Readers Forum on www.thaigirl2004.com often agonize over the nature of Thai women from the perspective of the farang male, bruised of heart and wallet, but any such insights can only be a small part of the book's appeal.

Early retired and old enough to know better, writing a novel was my foolish dream, and it was with trepidation that I consigned the final draft to the typesetters. I love all my characters and have a real passion for the Thai context of the story, but would the plot be sufficiently compelling and the writing good enough to sustain the reader over three hundred pages? I really wasn't sure.

The local publishing industry has produced a rash of expat novels, once described as 'a stack of tripe', so my novel would have to be distinctive and different; definitely not another bar girl story. Thus, when backpacker Ben falls for Fon, a modest young masseuse on Koh Samet, the story proves seminal, though in one sense only; Ben does not, it seems, get the girl! In this respect at least, the book is a literary first for Thailand!

In writing a travel novel, my aim was to inform the reader and to provoke thought; I wanted my story to be primarily about Thailand itself. And so, as I began my retirement, travelling alone, I revisited many old haunts in Thailand, my constant companion a thick notebook. These precious notes I later mined and polished as I wrote the story, producing gems such as the ladyboy fortune-teller outside Bazzas Bar in Sukhumvit and Stig Ruud the Norwegian truckdriver and sex tourist. As I wrote, I vicariously relived Ben's bosky nights on the beach at Koh Samet, and sat with his backpacker friends, slagging off the 'war on terror' over green curries at Odin's Pleasure Dome on Koh Chang. I loved every moment breathing life into my characters and maybe it shows.

Readers seem to find Ben's naïve passion for Fon and her dilemma over Ben both compelling and moving. Perhaps this reflects the enduring fascination we farang have for the Thais and they sometimes have for us. Sadly though, as we each aspire to be like the other, we learn that they're not as exotic as we thought; they just want to be like us!

When people ask me what "Thai Girl" is about, I find it surprisingly difficult to answer them. At one level it's just a poignant love story, an easy poolside read, but with pretensions to be something more that that too. As its author, I'm too close to it to be objective and only the reader can tell me what it means to them and why it's been so well received since its launch over a year ago.

Andrew Hicks

ACROSS THE AIRWAVES

There now follows a transcript of an interview with Professor Andrew Hicks, author of the best selling novel, "Thai Girl", hosted by the feminist chat show hostess, Mylene Déranger, which was broadcast by the Bangkok based radio station, AsiaView, on 1 April 2006.

Mylene: Andrew Hicks, there are those who say that the many liaisons between foreign men and much younger Thai women here are just based on sex. What would you say to that allegation?

Andrew: Well, yes, Mylene, maybe you're right.

Mylene: But aren't you ashamed to admit it?

Andrew: Not a bit. If you've got it flaunt it, as they say.

Mylene: And what exactly do you mean by that?

Andrew: No, the problem's this. You see, Thai women think Thai men are philanderers. And, compared to us, they're rather small where it matters… know what I mean? And we've got these wonderful white skins and long noses, so yes, maybe that's why they go wild about us.

Mylene: No, no! I mean it's you men who go crazy about them. (Pause.) No, Andrew… I mean… do you like Thai women?

Andrew: Oh yes, I do. Thai men too… I really like the Thai people.

Mylene: No! I mean, do you find them attractive?

Andrew: Oh yes, certainly… almost as attractive as western women.

Mylene: You mean less attractive?

Andrew: Look Mylene, physical attraction isn't important… it's what the person's really like… their kharma. But since you ask, I actually prefer blondes, statuesque women with substantial assets. But there you go… can't win'em all!

Mylene: But isn't it your assets the women here are after?

Andrew: I think I've told you that already.

Mylene: No, I mean they're just after your money, aren't they.

Andrew: Thai women want my money? How outrageous, Mylene! Absolutely not... they're in it for the romance. We're more romantic than Thai men, you see. See'em swooning over an old farang, and then you'd know sighs really matter.

Mylene: Size matters?

Andrew: No, Mylene, sighs matter. You feminists!

Mylene: Well, thanks for that, Professor! Maybe we'd better get back to the book. (Pause.) Now "Thai Girl"'s been described in the glossy monthly, 'Farang Untamed Travel' as being one of the biggest selling English language novels ever published in Thailand… and I'm told you're hoping to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Is this true?

Andrew: Yes, it's true.

Mylene: But is this a realistic hope?

Andrew: You have to have faith, Mylene… sheer merit will be recognised.

Mylene: Yes, but…

Andrew: Of course my Nobel claim isn't just based on "Thai Girl". There's also my "Nigerian Law of Hire Purchase", published by the Ahmadu Bello University Press some years ago. You must have read it.

Mylene: If I have, it's slipped my mind. (Pause.) So Andrew, what are you writing at the moment?

Andrew: I'm writing a personal memoir about living in Isaan.

Mylene: So where are you writing it?

Andrew: In Isaan.

Mylene: And what's it about?

Andrew: It's about my experiences writing a personal memoir while living in Isaan.

Mylene: So how's it going, this new book?

Andrew: Well, at the moment I feel I'm going round in circles a bit. But then that's very Buddhist, isn't it.

Mylene: Is it?

Andrew: And it's all about living there with my Cat.

Mylene: Your what? (Pause.) Well anyway, Andrew, I must now finish by saying… thank you for coming on AsiaView.

Andrew: I'm sure it's been a pleasure, Mylene.

'I'm not really this good looking!

THE KANDINSKY LODE

BOOK REVIEW

'The Kandinski Lode' by Andrew Hicks, reviewed by Dustin Caldwell, embargoed for publication on 1st April 2006.

Andrew Hicks' new book, "The Kandinski Lode" is notable for reaching far beyond the literary range of "Thai Girl", his first bestselling novel. In a virtuoso exhibition of versatility, "The Kandinsky Lode" weaves a compelling narrative at many multi-textured levels which both entertains and informs. Themes of early Christianity are explored throughout, including the key proposition that myth and religion are inseparable as a conservative continuum and that it was Emperor Constantine's 'acquisition' of Christianity that led to the dominance of a highly assertive religio-political hierarchy.

In Hicks' story, Desmond Jones, an accountant, lives with his wife Molly in their suburban house in Surbiton in the south of England. One day Des is disturbed to find their lodger, Augustus Dernit, dead in his room, empaled on his computer table with an assegai. Nothing has been stolen except an ordinary Toshiba laptop.

This discovery leads Des into a terrifying quest for the hidden secrets of the ancient church during which he comes to fear for his sanity and for his very life. Gussie, as Dernit was known, had managed in his dying breath to leave some vital clues on the desk, written in his own blood. Des pursues these with an accountant's zeal, following many blind trails, but revealing truths that no mere novelist could ever have imagined.

He learns that Gussie had been receiving a series of pop-ups on his computer screen, apparently from an extra-terrestial cyber source. One of these popped up just before his murder and he managed to write in blood across his desk the mystifying words, 'Iti sapis potanda bigo ne!' After much research among Gnostic archives, Des discovers this loosely to mean, 'That's my story and I'm sticking to it!' Could these words, he speculates, be attributed to the Virgin Mary herself?

Pursuing his search for the Divine Toshiba, the essential key to the mystery, Des is intrigued by repeated numerical references in biblical writings; the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Thirty Nine Articles to name but a few. Could God himself be an accountant who has made Desmond in his own image, giving him a special role to play on earth? And how, he asks, could Saint Peter have the data processing capacity to call up instant trial balances of sins and good works on Judgment Day without causing unacceptable queues at the Pearly Gates?

Then Des himself starts getting celestial emails from above. Extraordinarily, he seems to have replaced Gussie as God's chosen intermediary on earth. These divine messages tell him that Jesus had a twin brother, named Judas Thomas, who was brought to France by Joseph of Arithmetea (sic) accompanied by Maximinus, one of the seventy two disciples who later became the first bishop of Aix. Des again is fascinated by the numerical references; even the name Aix contains the Roman numeral nine.

The emails continue, leading him to an obscure symbologist, Joseph Kandinski who is obsessed with finding the modern equivalent of the lode stone and the art of alchemy. Could the answer be the silicon chip, the modern source of fabulous wealth? Then the messages start referring obliquely to the Second Coming of Christ, to the multiple filial phantasm and the sacred messianic emanation.

From their joint researches they soon discover that the second coming is not in the person of Christ himself but of his resurrected twin, Judas Thomas; and remarkably, he is already upon the earth. He has come, it seems, not as an evangelistic Christ-man figure but in the guise of a wealthy IT entrepreneur and philanthropist to give to mankind the benefit of God's enhanced data processing expertise, bringing new meaning to the expression, 'Jesus Saves'.

Desmond ponders the identity of this figure and notes wisely that God uses the Messianic Saviour Divine Operating System, and for software runs the Pearly Gates database, God's Word and Good Works. Could these be God's software prototypes which can offer new applications for mankind, thus indicating the worldly identity of the second son of God, now present here on earth.

Is it, Des concludes portentously, that the truth really is all about the archytypal pattern of wholeness, the harmony of the polarities and the 'szygy' of logos/Sophia representing the divine as a union of opposites? Or in Lennonian terms this could simply mean, 'Life goes on, brah!' or as Voltaire more candidly put it, 'You'd better go and mow the garden.'

"The Kandinsky Lode" is thus an assured piece of fiction which knits together the past and present seamlessly and is as much an ingenious and blazingly good yarn as it is an exceptional piece of scholarship. Profoundly erudite, it is an intricate and intensely pleasurable read in which the writer has far excelled "Thai Girl", his strangely successful first offering.

Not yet available at Asia Books and other good bookshops.