Andrew Hicks

I remember that on this thread there was a long discussion about Jack Reynolds' classic novel of 1956, "A Woman of Bangkok" on which I had to scotch rumours that Monsoon Books had re-issued it.

The news is now that Monsoon have had it back in print for some months and also as an ebook.

I have just re-read it and it is as a portrait of a wallet munching lady of the night sharp and memorable as my first time...  the first time I read it, that is.

A period piece that is as on target as the day it was written.

Andrew Hicks

eljeque, on 2011-09-23 11:43:28, said:

Please forgive the irrelevance, but why is this member allowed to publicise a book as his avatar?

I am the author of the novel, THAI GIRL, and my avatar was a charicature of myself holding a tiny, tiny red book that was not identifiable.  I was told I had to remove it and of course complied.

More importantly, accidents with elephants are a recurring theme, eg in Pattaya and Surin, and something surely needs to be done.

Andrew Hicks

hongkonger, on 2010-08-11 15:19:27, said:

Thanks for this.  Amazing that a copy of 'The Utter Shambles' has surfaced in Singapore.  A friend in the US traced several copies in libraries there but was not too impressed when he read it.

I have a copy inscribed by Jack to his old China friend, Bernard Llewellyn, also a published author and a founder of Oxfam's development work.  It is dated 1976 and says, "Bernard, Three bits and pieces from a major work that may never get any further. Jack."  It didn't!

It was written by Jack in what he called his anecdotage and has lost the zing of his earlier book.

Again, can anyone find any speedway records that refer to him?  (See above.)

Andrew

hongkonger, on 2010-08-09 22:05:40, said:

Thanks Hongkonger,

As to the reissue of Jack Reynolds' seminal novel, "A Woman of Bangkok", sadl there are some difficult copyright isues that have to be resolved first.

But I am working hard on reearching more about his life and a biography and/or a book of his collected writings are on the cards.  It's a huge amount of work though.

I am trying to trace his father's origins in Llangollen, North Wales and was there a week or two back looking for the cottage at Worlds End that Jack worked from as a walking tour guide in the late thities.  

I'm also in touch with his primary school in Buntingford, Hertfordshire where his father was a Congregational minster and I have had photos published in the local paper appealing for info.  So far no response.

Most of all I'm intrigued by the work he did from 1946 to 1951 in West China with the Friends Ambulance Unit.  These men did heroic work in appalling conditions transporting medical supplies and running clinics in the late war years and as the communists arrived.  Jack died in 1981 but I'm in touch with no fewer than five men who were there in Chungking with him.  So may survivors from so long ago.  

I've obtained hundreds of pages of documents from the Friends Library archives both in London and Philadelphia consisting of reports Jack wrote back to HQ and his creative writing for the Friends Newsletter.  He was captured by bandits and beaten with the flat of a sword.  He rolled a truck and survived this and a serious attack of scrub typhus that killed other men.  It's better than any novel and there's so much of it.

It's all amazing stuff and it tells me so much about this extraordinary time and a very remarkable man.

After China Jack settled in Bangkok, working for Unicef and then for the UN in many other developing countries, interspersed with journalism and editing work back hme in Bangkok.  He left a lot of published writings behind but it is all lost and forgotten.  I'm now trying to find it all.

In Thailand his work was in the back of beyond bringing basic medecine to the villages.  His diaries give a picture of life in Isaan at that time and one of his stories is how when his jeep broke a spring somewhere out in Sisaket he stumbled upon a woman dying in childbirth and used his medical skills to save her life while al the men glowered.  

Collecting all this stuff together with photo images could make a wonderful book.

There are just so many leads to follow up though.  For example, one I despair of is his UN eployment records.  Where are they and how to crack them?  I've failed so far.

There's another one that should be easier.  In the late thirties Jack was something of a speedway ace in England, riding for the Leabridge and Clapton teams.  (His folks lived in Walthamstow, north London.)

Jack claims in a Bangkok Post article that an item in Speedway News (late thirties) by Arthur Westwood described him, Jack, as the only speedway rider whose father was a parson and who had had a poem published in "The Listener".

Fascinating!  So can anyone find any speedway records that refer to Jack or suggest how I might find them? Or eve trace the Speedway News article.  The internet has failed me so far.

Incidentally, "Jack Reynolds" is a pseudonym.  His real name was Emrys Reynolds Jones and he went by the name of 'Jack' Jones.

So the hunt is on!  Can anyone do better finding him on biker internet sites than I did?

I do hope so!

Andrew Hicks

hongkonger, on 2010-08-01 17:18:52, said:

'A Sort of Beauty', later called 'A Woman of Bangkok' by 'Jack Reynolds' has been out of print since the eighties so it is not available in Asia Books or any other book shop.  Second hand copies do not often appear but can be found on the internet.  Which is very sad as it's a remarkable period piece which still paints a very contemporary picture of Thailand.

I am busy discovering the life of its author who was an unusual man and had an extraordinary life.  A published poet and  a speedway rider in England, he did many years humanitarian relief work in China with the Friends Ambulance Unit.  He then settled in Bangkok working for Unicef and raised a family of seven children.  He kept writing but never had another big seller and died in 1984.

I have so much material on him that a book of extracts from his various works and a biography ought to result.  I'll be very sad if they don't but  there's already lots about him on my blog.

Andrew Hicks