acarthew

I was born in Feilding, New Zealand and became a journalist in 1969, working in the Parliamentary Press Gallery on and off for 12 years, two years of those as TVNZ's chief parliamentary reporter. I covered two election campaigns with Muldoon and travelled overseas with him and several other prime ministers for TVNZ. I was editor in Wellington of Eyewitness News current affairs show and editor of Sunday interview show and produce of This Week current affair show. I subsequently end up managing Consultus, a large PR company, then worked in direct report to the CEO positions at Wellington City Council, TVNZ and as Director, Corporate Communications (NZ) for Air NZ. I came to Thailand in 2001 to open and manage the Star Alliance Asia Pacific office for 7 years, then another 5 managing Star's global environmental programme. I have co-edited and contributed to several technical books on politics, political polling, the environment and produced a twice yearly roundup of the media in 33 Asia Pacific countries. Subsequently i moved to Phuket where I ran my own PR agency doing work in the hospitality and luxury boat industries as well as being a reporter for a local TV station, writing an aviation column for two local newspapers, being on a Saturday morning radio sports programme and contributing articles to glossy magazines such as Prestige and Tatler. These days i do caricatures for friends and am now preparing to launch my first novel, Proud, an amusing look at New Zealand from afar and writing my second novel about Republicanism, again a satirical book set in Proud (really New Zealand) I am president elect at my local Rotary club and travel frequently, particularly to Melbourne to see our two children and four grandchildren. My wife is a New Zealander who loves living on Phuket. We are here for a while but follow events in NZL closely on a daily basis.