Eating Smoke: One Man's Descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland

"... exemplary pacing, completely engaging tone, wealth of winning detail. Thrall uses such verve, enthusiasm and faultless comic timing that it is hard not to be swept along." - South China Morning Post

"What else would you expect from a former Royal Marine Commando? Chris Thrall has a hell of a story to tell, and he does so with humour, candour and page-turning prose." - Tom Carter. CHINA: Portrait of a People

"This book works on so many levels. For starters, memoirs can only be successful if the central character is likable. And this is certainly the case for Chris Thrall." - Susan Blumberg-Kason

"Book of the Year." - Time Out Hong Kong

Chris Thrall was born in South East London. At eighteen, he joined the Royal Marine Commandos. Following active service in the Northern Ireland Conflict and Arctic warfare and survival training, he earned his parachutist's 'wings' and served in a high-security detachment on board an aircraft carrier.

In 1995, Chris moved to Hong Kong to oversee the Asia-Pacific expansion of a successful network-marketing operation he'd built, part-time, while serving in the Forces. Less than a year later, he was homeless, in psychosis from crystal meth addiction and working for the 14K, a Hong Kong triad society, as a doorman in the infamous Wan Chai red-light district.

'Eating Smoke', a moving yet humorous first book, is not a memoir of regret.

In 1999, Chris fire-walked 120 feet over red-hot coals to raise money to work with street children in post-war Mozambique. He has driven a coach of volunteer journalists to India from Norway and back to highlight the lives of those living in poverty and run a sub-four London Marathon in support of disadvantaged young people. Having raised thousands of pounds for projects in sub-Saharan Africa, Chris was awarded the Second Level Commendation of the Finnish Nation, granted to him on the grounds of Human Generosity.

Chris has backpacked through eighty countries across all seven continents and led a team of explorers from Sweden to Iceland in a vintage army truck. He is a keen snowboarder, a qualified pilot, skydiver and scuba diver, who in 2012 expeditioned to the Antarctic polar circle to dive with icebergs and leopard seals.

With a degree in Youth and Community Work, Chris has worked in mental health, learning disability and is substance misuse specialist. He lives in the UK, where he has written the opening two novels in a thriller series and still hopes to become an astronaut, a dolphin trainer or the Milky Bar Kid.