This is the second collection of Thai stories by Michael Smithies. The first, "Bright of Bangkok," was published, also by Silkworm Books, in 1993. Smithies has spent many years in Thailand; he speaks fluent Thai and resides in a village near the small town of Bua Yai in the northeast of the country.
The germs for half the stories come from reports published in the local press. Smithies, though, has used his fertile imagination to turn the bare facts of newspaper articles into fiction.
The amusing "Letters from Pattaya," for example, is an embroidered press report. The story concerns letter writers in this seaside resort who correspond on behalf of hostesses with their foreign friends. The inventive scribes wrap requests for money in artful phrases that often succeed in bringing about the desired result.