VERY BANGKOK

In The City of The Senses
Updated 2nd edition

Fully updated 2nd Edition – with a new chapter

An acclaimed portrait of the world’s most visited city by the bestselling author of Very Thai. Feel the kaleidoscopic Thai capital through 20 senses, sampling its spicy flavours, vibrant sounds, seductive scents, shamanic trance, and senses of direction, time or colour. Meet its zesty subcultures, from ethnic roots to restive youth and ancient rites to noir streetlife.

“No foreign or Thai writer has published a book that comes close to providing as erudite and
intimate a portrait of the Thai capital. Explores and explains myriad urban tales, myths, facts and contradictions, accompanied by the author’s vivid colour photographs.”

— Tom Vater, Nikkei Asian Review

“Philip Cornwel-Smith’s much-adored Very Thai captured the essence of contemporary ‘Thainess’
with a profound depth and uncanny authenticity. Now his Very Bangkok does an even more adventurous search for the true identity of this complex, unique and notorious capital.” 

— Prabda Yoon, film director & SEA Write prize-winning author

“Thoughtful, compelling and affectionate… [this] book is about people... [and] the new breed of Global City. The background theme is the struggle between order and chaos, authoritarianism and freedom. The coverage is remarkable for its range and its depth... but delivered like a friend in an informal chat. Serious, thought-provoking, and fun. A great book.”

— Chris Baker, Bangkok Post

“Very Bangkok is a special book, perhaps one of the best about a city. It gives you a coherent sense of a place in action, its dynamics, its ways of life, its textures, its quirky peculiarities.
You feel Bangkok is part of you – it immerses you so much.”

— Charles Landry, Creative Cities guru, author of The Art of City Making

“Brilliant and polychromatic... A vast tapestry of meditations on the nature of cities...
combining whimsy, erudition, and precision of language. Since writing Very Thai,
Cornwel-Smith has become the city’s preeminent mythographer.”

— Lawrence Osborne, author of Bangkok Days and The Forgiven

“An outside observer, he is able to provide a more well-rounded view of Bangkok than a Bangkokian… getting under the city’s skin and making sense of its DNA. Many observations might not be flattering, but they are honest and important ones that many Thais haven’t dwelled on or even noticed.”

— Pim Wangtechawat, Mekong Review

“Has the answers to the paradoxes we wondered about. With its wealth of detail and breadth
of thought, this book on Bangkok will not be equalled for years to come.”

— Alex Kerr, author of Lost Japan and Bangkok Found

“A veritable masterpiece. It is a kind of guide, but not about travel. It’s about a place and how to understand it. A sophisticated treatment that gives ultimate respect to the reader. The standard from which any future examination of Bangkok, if any dare attempt it, will be measured by.”

— David Streckfuss, Isaan Record