Writers’ nights at Mom Tri’s Boathouse hotel kick off again on April 29 with an evening with Bangkok-based Canadian film-maker, writer and public speaker Bjorn Turmann.

Jean-Noel Lumineau presented his first French food festival at Mom Tri’s Boathouse in Kata nine years ago – two weeks of the very best French food in the world.

He came back every year to do the same thing and, in September 2008, made the big jump, moving to Phuket as Chef Consultant for Mom Tri’s four restaurants – the Boathouse, the Oasis next door, Mom Tri’s Kitchen (all in Kata) and, the most recent addition, Mom Tri’s Regatta at the Royal Phuket Marina.

Mom Tris’ Boathouse hotel has long been a centre for literature in Phuket, starting more than a decade ago with its Chao Phraya Literary Club.

Okay, so far no Pulitzer or Booker winners have appeared at the hotel’s regular literary evenings, but the evenings do feature a variety of Thailand-based novelists, columnists, poets, editors and assorted scribblers, and attract a good crowd of people who have realised there is life outside Patong.

Years ago, before Hilton, Marriott and all the other giant chains arrived, at a time when the fanciest homes (sorry, “villas”) on the island cost 10 million baht, not six million bucks, The Boathouse in Kata was the nearest Phuket had to a centre of culture and other good things for foreigners.

For example, The Boathouse (now called Mom Tri’s Boathouse) pretty much started people drinking wine. Until then, the choice was Singha or Sangsom-Coke. The taxes on wine amounted to about 300%, so it was expensive, but The Boathouse became very creative at finding good wines from places like Chile and Australia at low prices, then almost gave the wine away in order to get people hooked on it.