Lance: Correct on all counts. How do you think your past work as a reporter for several major Asian newspapers effects your current fiction work?

Stephen: I think all my work is influenced by my journalistic background. Some of the best thriller writers - Ken Follet, Frederick Forsyth, Gerald Seymour - started life as journalists. It helps with your research, but also helps to keep your writing uncluttered. The Fireman, which is a novel set in Hong Kong, features a journalist and it's very much based on my experiences there.

Lance: I realize you're books are not exclusively about Asia but I think for me your most memorable book is Private Dancer about a Nana go-go bar girl and Pete, a young travel writer. How much of this story overshadows your own experiences in Bangkok?

Stephen: It's a work of fiction, but based on reality. I heard a lot of the stories that feature in Private Dancer while I was sitting in Jool's Bar in Soi Nana. I think it's a pretty accurate description of what goes on between bargirls and their customers. I did get into a bit of a mess with a girl from Nana years ago, but Pete definitely isn't me, and the opinions expressed by the various characters in Private Dancer aren't my opinions. The book got a lousy review from some twat in the Nation who seemed to think that the characters all spoke with my voice and that their opinions were the way I felt about the country. He didn't get that it was a novel, not a travel guide. Over the course of 17 novels I've created hundreds of characters and it goes without saying that they are not all me! That's the job of a writer, to create characters and to make them seem real. I like Private Dancer from the way it looks at the Bangkok barscene from so many viewpoints and that so many of the expats really don't understand what's going on.

Lance: Do you still visit Nana, Patpong and the like when you're in town? How has it changed since 1996?

Stephen: The nightlife scene isn't a patch on what it used to be. I go to Nana once or twice a week when I'm in town, Soi Cowboy every month or so, and haven't been to Patpong for years. Private Dancer describes Nana in its heyday, and now it's just a pale imitation. I don't see why so many guys fly half way around the world to watch women wearing bikinis....you see more flesh on a European beach. Patpong is now just a street market with a few bars, and I find the idea of wandering between crowds of sweating sunburnt fat farang women and their offspring a pretty unappealing prospect. I only go there now if I wanna buy a fake watch. Personally, I think Bangkok would be better off without Nana, Cowboy and Patpong so that the sex tourists would stay in Pattaya and Phuket. What is it with these fat pricks in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops wandering along Sukhumvit hand-in-hand with girls half their age and third of their weight? Don't they realise what they look like? Sad to say, most of them appear to be British...

Lance: Any future plans to bring your suspense thrillers back for a novel set in Thailand?

Stephen: Probably not a thriller, but I'm working on Confessions Of A Bangkok Private Eye based on the real-life adventures of a guy called Warren Olson. And I'm planning a series of Bangkok-based detective stories using a character called Bangkok Bob, an antiques dealer who solves mysteries. Watch this space!

Lance: What are you're thoughts on Valium/Viagra milkshakes?