Borderlines: Journey in Thailand and Burma [Hardcover]

Charles Nicholl (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nicholl's ( The Fruit Palace ) new book plays on words in its title as the author slips between the borders of Thailand and Burma and the real and imagined fears encountered in a richly contradictory region--a culture as deeply entrenched in prostitution and the heroin trade as in Buddhism--and explores the frontier between fiction and reportage. Based on three months of travel in Thailand and Burma during 1986, the volume takes us on the road with Harry, a French gem trader who convinced Nicholl to chaperone his Thai girlfriend in exchange for a guided tour of forest temples and other sights ("Patpong is a brief neon hymn to desire, a cacophony of come-ons"). Like sidekick Nicholl, readers never know where--or quite why--they are going until they get there, and the cast of characters is large, from "a twelve-stone Englishman with a ruddy face and a stumpy black beard" to women performing with chopsticks in sex shows. Regardless, Nicholl's journalism is impelled by an unfailing sense of adventure and a reporter's sixth sense for "story."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Nicholl spent a few months in Thailand in 1986, and he claims that this book is no more than "a record of some of the people I met . . . places I passed through." Like a B-movie adventure, he tells of a gem-and-gun-trading French expatriate named Harry Vincent and his Thai mistress, Katai. In their company he travels to the opium fields of the Golden Triangle, meets antigovernment insurgents in Burma, and throughout, encounters characters and locales right out of a Graham Greene novel. Nicholl finally gets to the Buddhist temple that was his original goal, but finds it as unrewarding as Katai finds her relationship with Harry, and Harry finds his attempt to trade guns for jade. An interesting and unusual addition for most collections.
- Kenneth W. Berger, Duke Univ. Lib., Durham, N.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; First Edition edition (October 17, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0436309807
• ISBN-13: 978-0436309809
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,238,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning and Inspiring, Please Reprint, July 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Borderlines: Journey in Thailand and Burma (Hardcover)

A lyrical, vivid, picaresque account of one adventurous man's oddyssey through Thailand and Burma. Nicholl is able to evoke the beauty and mystery of South East Asia without succumbing to the usual, "exotic" cliches and mushy prosody. His is a rational, discerning eye dazzled by the grandeur of an alien land.

Almost every detail of his account is fascinating, every character vital, astonishing, yet believable. Reading it was a huge inspiration in the days before I made my own, reckless trek through Asia. One of the most down-to-earth, poetic and enthralling travel books ever.

Please, Amazon, urge the reprinting of this book, or find an alternate source so that others can enjoy it as I did.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Add This Book to Your Pre-Trip Reading List, July 1, 2001

By 

Bec "bec16" (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Borderlines: A Journey in Thailand and Burma (Penguin Travel Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Nicholl's story is at turns entertaining and informative, and he tells it well. (This reads more like fiction than a travelogue.) It's a light, quick read. My only criticism is sometimes it feels Nicholl is trying a little to hard to be a novelist rather than a travel writer when he circles back to the title, which feels contrived.

But that doesn't detract from the story, and paired with Lily Tuck's "Siam", and a couple "Rough Guides", you'll be itching to buy your ticket to Chiang Mai.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transported - either to Chang Mai in 1984 or Depford in 1594, July 23, 2002

By 

eskimo56 "eskimo56" (Edmonton AB) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Borderlines: Journey in Thailand and Burma (Hardcover)

I was in Sidney enroute to Bangkok maddly looking for SOMETHING to orient me when I landed, when I stumbled across this gem. It was the cover that attracted me at first - crimson red earth, lush green foliage, searing blue sky, white clouds. Beautiful - but at odds with the title - Borderlines, which seemed to imply a vaguely psychotic, marginal subsistance kind of place that didn't square with what I was expecting from the beach holiday image I had been assured of.

What was "Borderline" about Thailand?

As I found out - everything.

A remarkably insightful "traveler's classic" which explores the country, its people and ones state of mind as you travel through it being seduced. Prose that remind one of a cross between Somerset Maugham in "The Comedians" and gonzo journalist R.H.Thompson. Where did he learn to write!

Then a couple of years ago I was mentioning this trip to a buddy who teaches Elizabethian Drama - he knew Charles Nicholl for his remarkable sleuthing done in "The Reckoning" which showed some hitherto undiscovered facts that support his contention that Christopher Marlowe may have been eliminated for his spying activity rather than in a chance brawl in an obscure tavern on the outskirts of London in 1594.

This is a talented man.