Claire Keefe-Fox was born in Italy of French and American parents and grew up between Europe and the USA, however, she always felt a special affinity for Asia. Her love affair with Thailand began when she saw a replica of the Bang Pa In pavilion at the world expo in Brussels and she has been coming to Thailand almost every year since 1975.
After serving for four years as director of Alliance Française for Thailand, she returned to university in Paris to complete her degree in Thai language and studies, constantly trying to deepen her knowledge of the country which she feels is her second home, and now divides her time between France and Bangkok.
She has written three novels in French and two in English, Siamese Tears, and Bangkok in Times of Love and War, which were published by River Books.
Her four novels dealing with Siamese history have been translated into Thai and published by Nanmee Books and have all been best sellers.
Claire was invited to be the keynote speaker at the last SEA Write Awards ceremony in November 2019 at the Oriental Hotel, following in the footsteps of writers such as Peter Ustinov, Paul Theroux, and James Michener and for her, that was a dream come true. At an only slightly less exalted level, Claire gave a very well-received talk to the Anglo-Thai Society in 2017 on the launch of her first English-language novel, 'Siamese Tears'.
1941. War is raging in Europe and now sweeps through South-East Asia.
In Bangkok, Kate Fallon, an American nurse, who came to Thailand to leave her past of poverty and a broken heart behind, and Lawrence Gallet, an English journalist, are trapped in the chaos of conflict, believing their love can overcome their differences before being torn apart.
Lawrence flees to China to escape the advancing Japanese army, while the net closes slowly around Kate, who has remained behind, increasingly threatened and forced to hide her identity.
A sweeping saga moving from a Thailand uneasily poised between Japan and the West to the ravaged battlegrounds of Burma and India, from the charity ward of a Bangkok hospital to bombed airfields, from the Thai domestic resistance movement to the deadly jungles of the Arakan, Bangkok in Times of Love and War is a story of life and death, passion, loyalty and loss, and of a man and a woman caught up in the upheaval of history.
On Zoom, October 28th 18:30 GMT. If you would like to join the Zoom meeting please email secretary@anglothaisociety.org. Invitations will be sent Monday 26th.