Does Bangkok have a centre? How would you classify that Thai smile you just received by height and angle? What do the flames and curlicues of Thai design have in common with conch shells and cactus? After shopping, nightlife, and temples, you start to wonder where the appeal of Bangkok really lies. Sequel to Alex Carr's award-winning Lost Japan, Bangkok Found takes you on a journey to the origin in this series of meditations on the city. With wit and a wealth of anecdotes from thirty years experience in Bangkok, Alex probes beneath the surface, as he moves from being a shopper to a shop owner, and from an island-hopper to an island developer. He relives the myth of old Bangkok, watching masked dancers perform by moonlight at his old teak house, only to find that modern artists are also creating a mystical new city based on cultural fashion. AUTHOR: Alex Kerr is a writer and world renowned expert on Japanese culture and art. Born in America in 1952 he studied Japanese Studies at Yale University and Chinese Studies at Oxford University. He has lived in Japan and Thailand since the early 1970's. He is also the author of award-winning Lost Japan 1994, Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan 2002, and Living in Japan 2006. SELLING POINTS Sequel to Alex Kerr's award-winning Lost Japan, this publication is sure to be equally successful Cover images contributed by renowned Thai artists Navin Rawanchaikul and Thongchai Srisukprasert 85 b/w illustrations

Author Biography

Writer, scholar, preservationist and entrepreneur, Alex Kerr has spent most of his life in Japan and Thailand. He majored in Japanese Studies at Yale University (1969 - 74), and earned a BA and MA in Chinese Studies as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University (1974-77). He first visited Bangkok in 1973 and has been based there permanently since 1997. Alex's book. Lost Japan (1993), reflections on how he saw Japan change after the 1960s, won the prestigious Shincho Lierary Prize, the first time it was a warded to a foreigner. His next book, Dogs and Demons (2001) described the industrial devastation of Japan's countryside. Alex's long association with Thailand has taken many incarnations, from restorer of old teak houses to promoter of cultural events, culminating in 2004 with the founding of Origin, a program that teaches traditional Thai arts in Bangkok and Chiangmai.