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Biography
Colin Cotterill
Writer and cartoonist Colin Cotterill is most well-known for the sardonic Dr. Siri Paiboun Series, set in the People's Republic of Laos during the late 1970s. Dr. Siri is a septuagenarian coroner who works in a morgue in a hospital in Vientiane. <More about the books in this series>
In 2011, Cotterill transformed the tragedy of world economic crisis into the background for a funny, warm-spirited new series set in southern Thailand starring Jimm Juree, intrepid girl crime reporter. <More about the books in this series>Cotterill became fascinated by Laos when he was a young teacher in Australia working with Laotian refugees. NPR reports that Cotterill's first trip to Laos, with a UNESCO project, turned into a two year stay, most of it spent in the hospital where Dr Siri works. The first month, Cotterill was a patient in the hospital. The rest of the time he was a tenant in an apartment on one of the hospital's upper floors. He spent a lot of time with the medical staff, practicing his Lao, hanging out, and swapping stories with the doctors, nurses, and patients. Many of the stories he heard were about the late 1970s, when the long-running Laotian civil war had finally ended and the new communist government was just getting on its feet.Born in London, Cotterill has taught in Australia, the United States and Japan, and lived in Thailand and in Laos. He has worked for non-governmental social service organizations in rehabilitating abused children. At present, he is a full-time writer and lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Colin Cotterill
Awards
On June 15 2009 Colin Cotterill received the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award for being "the author of crime fiction whose work is currently giving the greatest enjoyment to library users"
He received the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Bibliography
Colin Cotterill
Anthology
