Neville Changes Villages

Neville Palmer is the last of the Teddy Boys. Afraid his nefarious activities will finally catch up with him, Neville decides to escape abroad armed with a suitcase full of Elvis music, drape jackets and pneumatic breasts. He becomes embroiled in a series of bizarre adventures that take him from the rock and roll clubs of London to the gates of Siam Sanitary Land. Neville discovers that Thai family life is even more dysfunctional than he is; what it’s like to teach English on the wild side and learns how things can go horribly wrong on the Lao border when you don’t keep a firm grip on your soft bits.

NCV is an entertaining and hugely affectionate satire about life in Thailand before the internet took over the world; it also tweaks the nose of the Western Condition: the right to travel to other people’s countries and foist them with Western neuroses and narratives.