Thank you Lunchtime O'Booze
I would rather not discuss my memories of Arthur in a public forum for personal reasons. But when I am next in Pattaya, I can send you a PM and we can have a drink together if you like.
But I feel quite free to tell you that Arthur was looked upon like a god in Sri Lanka. How many writers have had countries issue commemorative postage stamps to them while still living?
As you must know, Arthur came to the island in the mid-1950s with Mike Wilson and quickly befriended Bevis Bawa, Roland Raven-Hart and Rodney Jonklaas. None of these by any stretch of the imagination were ordinary "main stream" people. If the truth be told, they were among the most magnificently eccentric and riveting individuals I have ever known who were never ready to accept the "given" world of what most people call "reality" and so created their own. Sometimes these worlds collided but always for worth.
But that's enough for now.