Romancing the East: A Literary Odyssey from the Heart of Darkness to the River Kwai

Jerry Hopkins has published more than 1,000 magazine articles and 36 books, including several international bestsellers—the cult classic No One Here Gets Out Alive, among them. This biography of rock singer Jim Morrison was a No. 1 bestseller in the New York Times in 1980 (remaining on that list for nine months) and went back to No. 2 in 1991 when it was a primary source for Oliver Stone's film The Doors. There are more than four million copies in print. He moved to Thailand in 1993 and developed a strong reputation writing about food, travel, and various aspects of Asian life and culture. Since moving he has written Thailand Confidential, a collection of essays about life in that country; Bangkok Babylon, twenty-five profiles of some of the most interesting expatriates he met during his first ten years in Southeast Asia; and Asian Aphrodisiacs, the first definitive (and often humorous) survey of the region's best and worst turn-ons, the first two published in 2005, the last in 2006. He and his Thai-Khmer wife divide their time between a flat in Bangkok and a house on a working farm an eight-hour train ride away near the Cambodian border.