Thailand inspires such enthralled romanticism that it also invites great cynicism and it is a feat to acknowledge all its complexities and graces, as Osborne does, without ever quite surrendering to them
Pico Iyer
Los Angeles Times
He is a first-rate observer and analyst... Any Westerner curious to take a decadent Oriental trip with a writer you can trust to keep you turning the pages should pick up a copy
New York Times
He vividly sketches the characters he meets: a man with a degree in air-conditioning, one with an air of "upper-class twittery"... Osborne's travelogue is, however, memorably touching
Anita Sethi
Independent on Sunday
With a brief stint as a gigolo, insights into the Buddhist interpretation of transgender 'kathoeys', and several friendships with various wayward desolates, Osborne maintains a lively note to proceedings throughout... this book has an underlying sense of warmth and genuine fondness for its subject matter
Real Travel Magazine
He uses language with great skill, and the sounds and smells of Bangkok are wonderfully evoked. Osborne's writing conveys a geniune love for the city
Library Journal
Nicely observed
William Leith
Scotsman
An enlightening tour of the twilight world of exile
Traveller
Osborne paints an evocative portrait of the Thai capital
Sara Wheeler
The Lady
One of the best travel books I have read for a long time, as books always are when written from the inside, by someone who has not just visited a city but lives in it at what you might call "street level"... Not the Bangkok the cheap-flight brigade will ever see
Susan Hill
The Lady
Osborne is an accomplished travel writer... Osborne creates a city of beauty in its own right, and it is one in constant conflict of identity
Eats.com