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The former Thai Prime Minister's taste for the high life is continuing to make headlines as warrants are issued for his arrest.
The life of an exile is never easy. The Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero was banished in 58BC and it caused him to fall into a deep depression; Napoleon died on St Helena, never to see his native France again; while the Egyptian politician Mahmoud Sami al-Baroudi so hated his exile to what is now Sri Lanka that he wrote a series of poems full of lament and misery.
But all of these hardships are nothing, surely, compared with the tribulation confronting billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand and a man whose life in London has been made miserable by that most pernicious of urban challenges - finding a decent barber.
The man who was last year ousted from power by a military coup and who bought Manchester City football club in an apparent bid to find solace, discovered to his dismay that getting his hair cut in a way that he liked was as difficult a challenge as staying in power.
Such was the struggle for a decent trim that when he travelled to either Singapore or Hong Kong, he flew in his own stylist from Bangkok. "The hairdresser in London cut it either too short or too funky," Thaksin confided. "Sometimes he made me look like a teenager."
This insight about the remarkable and wasteful habit is just one in a series of revelations that appear in a controversial new book Thaksin, Where Are You, about the former communications tycoon, which has set Thailand chattering about its ousted leader.
Among the revelations about the Manchester City boss' life in London is that he occupies his time shopping for handbags for his wife and two daughters and singing karaoke with a Thai pop singer called Lydia, who sometimes accompanies him on his shopping trips. "She is like another daughter to him," Thaksin's son told writer Sunisa Lertpakawat.
And while one might think a man of Thaksin's means can find plenty of the good life in London, he also likes to hop to France for "real wine and homemade food".
And when he's not sipping wine, shopping for handbags or singing Thai pop songs with Lydia, he takes a plane to a golf club in Miami ito improve and finesse his swing.
Perhaps not surprisingly given the number of social engagements and shopping trips he has to co-ordinate, Thaksin admits to owning eight mobile phones and 20 SIM cards.
Lertpakawat, a lieutenant in the Thai armed forces, claims she travelled to London this summer at her own expense to find Thaksin and persuade him to grant her an interview.
According to Lertpakawat, she secured seven hours of exclusive interviews with the notoriously reclusive man by a combination of weeping and pleading. Eventually, as she tells it, Thaksin gave in.
But in Thailand not everyone is persuaded by this charming little narrative and its tale of enterprise and ingenuity. Many people - including members of the military who overthrew Thaksin last year - believe the former prime minister is behind the book and that it is nothing less than a PR project to boost his image, just as he faces fresh legal difficulties in Thailand where a court has issued a warrant for his arrest.
One anonymous government official bluntly told a Thai newspaper: "You-know-who is the hand behind this publication."
This week Lertpakawat denied the book was anything other than what it claimed to be and insisted Thaksin - while agreeing to be interviewed - was not the instigator of the idea.
Speaking from Bangkok, she said: "I refute that. He did not know I would be there - it was just my own work. This is my job ... I am a Catholic, I think God is responsible for everything. When I was in London I prayed to God, I prayed that he put Thaksin in front of me."
She said she took time off her job as a television reporter and anchor with the Thai Army's media unit and flew to London in May. Once there she spent days staking out Thaksin at his furnished apartment close to Hyde Park. She said she approached him several times and he refused to speak to her. Having spent all her money on the £1500 ($4300) flight to London and her expenses, she said she then explained the severity of her situation to her fellow countryman.
"I told him that if he did not agree to the interview then I would lose my savings account," she said. "It would be zero. He was not in the mood to give an interview ... After I told him I would lose my money he agreed."
And what a diverting, insightful interview Thaksin provided.
Over two days, the former prime minister painted a colourful picture of himself that could barely have been more guaranteed to grab the headlines than if it had been specially produced by his PR agency.
Rounding off the image, Thaksin's son, Panthongtae, met Lertpakawat separately at a Thai restaurant and provided her with a series of family photographs and permission to use them in her book.
There are pictures of Thaksin working on that famous golf swing, shopping in a supermarket, on a bicycle, buying a pizza, feeding his son and looking at fish in an aquarium. All in all it is quite a family album.
The revelations about the man who paid almost £82 million to buy Manchester City come as he faces growing difficulties in Thailand where demonstrations last year - apparently linked to allegations of corruption - preceded the coup that saw him forced from power.
This week a Thai judge issued an arrest warrant for the former prime minister and his wife, Pojamarn, claiming their failure to attend the court hearing to face corruption charges gave "reason to believe that they are evading prosecution".
Thaksin and his wife are charged with several offences relating to a 2003 land deal, in which his wife is alleged to have bought the land from the Financial Institutions Development Fund, which is directed by the central bank. If convicted the pair face up to three years in jail.
The former prime minister's lawyer, Pichit Chuenban, told reporters Thaksin would return to Thailand to face the charges but only after elections scheduled for this year had gone ahead. In a statement Thaksin said he was aware of the court's decision and was consulting his legal team about the best way to proceed.
According to Lertpakawat, the charges brought against Thaksin and his family have had a deep impact on the ousted leader. She said that when he talked about seeing his family placed before the court, it was all he could do not to burst into crying.
"He almost cried before me. He could not hide the emotion. It was very dramatic. He is a famous guy," she said.
While Lertpakawat was weeping on Thai television this week over the Army's decision to discipline her for breach of regulations, she appears remarkably upbeat about her fortunes.
Though the printing of her book was halted after just 4000 copies, she said she was now setting up a publishing house and was planning to write another book about her own story.
And Thaksin also appears to have found a solution to his difficulties - at least those of finding a suitable barber.
In her book Lertpakawat writes that Thaksin stopped having to fly in his stylist after finding a "Spanish hairdresser at a Toni & Guy in London who manages to get his haircuts just right".
The Independent was able to confirm that the man who provides such sparkling cuts is 27-year-old Jorge De Sancho, who works at the chain's Mayfair branch.
A receptionist said of Thaksin: "He takes his time and likes to chat to Jorge. He's very friendly and doesn't come across as self-important at all."
- Independent
