Borderlines: A Journey in Thailand and Burma

(Paperback)

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In 1986, Charles Nicholl travels through Thailand to learn about the spiritual traditions of forest Buddhism in the north of the country. But interesting things have a habit of getting in the way.

When Nicholl meets Harry, an old French Indochina hand, on the night train north with his tales of Kachin jade and Shan opium it leads to a journey along the banks of the Mekong, into the Golden Triangle and then across the border into Burma, in the company of the book s Thai heroine, Kitai.

Often alarming but also sensual, it is beautifully told and a reminder that adventures still exist among shaman spirit-summoners, in rebel hideouts or in opium dens for those prepared to cross borders, real, imaginary or imposed.

Reviews

A South-East Asian travelogue that s as vivid and exotic as a fever dream Nicholl is a grand guide, good-humoured, inquisitive, and caring, illuminating but never overshadowing the marvellous land he so superbly describes. Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Charles Nicholl has written history, biography and travel but brings all these disciplines together as a literary detective. Subjects have included Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Rimbaud and Leonardo da Vinci. His most recent book is The Lodger, an intimate study of Shakespeare s life in London in the first years of the 17th century. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a recipient of the Hawthornden prize and has won the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger award. He has also presented documentary programmes on television and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children and is a visiting Professor at Sussex University.