A Spontaneous Biography of Thaksin

The origins of a new biography of deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin are unusual, to say the least. The author of the biography, Sunisa Lertpakawat, is an enlisted member of the Thai army working as a reporter at an army-run TV station (mentioned in a previous Jotman post). From the NY Times story today:

She pursued Mr. Thaksin for her first book, she said, because “I think Thaksin’s life is interesting, and because I am nobody, and it is hard to get people’s attention.”

Ms. Sunisa said she spent about $3,000 on her foray, flying to London on a budget airline and staying with a friend. She said she staked out Mr. Thaksin’s apartment for hours until he appeared, then pounced.

“My heart was beating really fast, my hands were shaking,” she writes in the book. “My brain was only thinking about the first words that I should say to him. I picked up my backpack, grabbed a video camera and ran toward a deep blue Rolls-Royce.”

Six hours later, she had the interview material from which she wrote her book.