…Kevin Meacher
I was born on 21st July, 1953 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England.
My mother left when I was a young child and I have no recollection of her and only a handful of pictures. My early years were spent living with my grandmother in Pinner, Middlesex.
My father, Kenneth Charles Meacher, married his second wife Dorothy Adele Crawford when I was five and my early years saw us moving home on a regular basis. After my grandmothers house we lived in a caravan, behind a petrol station off the Colnbrook By-Pass, close to Heathrow Airport where my father then worked. We moved to a rented apartment in Pinner for a year and then on to Maidenhead, Berkshire where I attended Ellington Junior School.
In 1962 we moved to a new house in Galleys Road, Windsor, Berkshire where I lived until leaving the family home in the summer of 1972. I attended Windsor Grammar School from 1964 to 1969 by which time they had had more than enough of me and my unfailing ability to finish bottom of the class year in and year out. I earned an Ordinary National Diploma in Business Studies at East Berks College, Maidenhead where I was also Student Union Chairman for two of my three years there.
In July, 1972 I started full-time employment with Royal Insurance at their offices in Chancery Lane, London and soon after left home and moved into a rented room in a house in Harringay, North London. Having escaped with my life following a knife attack by the landlord I moved to Earls Court where I rented various apartments over a four year period before marrying Jean Cassidy in late 1976.
The marriage did not last, all down to me I freely admit, and after the divorce I returned to live in London in 1980, first in Chiswick and then my old stomping grounds around the Earls Court area. I spent a few years living in Surbiton on the outskirts of London but suburban life was not for me and I soon returned to the capital.
My career remained within the insurance industry through to 1995 with the exception of a six month period in 1974 working for my fathers Entertainment Agency at his offices in Wardour Street, London. I also spent two years, in the late 1980s, as a public house manager for the Taylor Walker group.
In December 1995 I opened my own business being a small Estate Agency in Bayswater, West London. The company, Granvilles, grew and enjoyed the benefits of the property boom of the late nineties and when I sold my interests in 2004 we had offices in Bayswater, Notting Hill and Paddington.
I met my wife, Sujinda (Jin), in December 2000 and we were married the following July in England with a wedding ceremony in Thailand one month later. Jin has two children, Sam then aged five and Pakpao twelve, from a previous relationship. Jin gave birth to our son, James Meacher, on 25th January 2002.
Jin, Sam, James and I lived in Bayswater until Jin and the boys moved to Thailand in 2003 to oversee the development of our hotel in Pattaya. I moved to Thailand permanently in December, 2004.
I started to keep a diary of events shortly after moving to Thailand. In 2006 my “diary” accounts were posted on a Pattaya web forum and, to my amazement, received much acclaim. I was offered a publishing contract a few months later by Bangkok Books and completed “Riff-Raffles” in April of the following year.
