A Stroke of Genius at 137 Pillars House
February 24
Story telling by John Higgins on the works of Victor Canning at Jack Bain’s Bar, 137 Pillars House. “A Stroke of Genius” by Victor Canning. Victor Canning’s stories date from a time when papers like the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard had a new story every day and magazines like John Bull and Ellery Queen’s Mystery provided a market for suspense writers. Canning was outstanding in this field but as the marker dried up in the 1970’s so his reputation faded. On the positive side, Covid has brought back a demand for short fiction and audio books and the reissuing of many of Canning’s novels. About the Storyteller: Considered an expert on the life and works of Victor Canning, John Higgins was asked by Farrago Books to turn many of Canning’s stories into audio books. Recently returned to Chiang Mai after 56 years, John was part of the faculty at Chiang Mai University and taught a class on the day that CMU opened. And if that’s not enough, his association with 137 Pillars House dates to 1964 when he, his wife and daughters lived in one of the residences on the Borneo Compound.