J.C.Shaw was born in England in 1934, educated at Sherborne and Magdalen College Oxford where he obtained a M.A. in Modern History. He then spent many years in marketing with various companies such as Fisons, the Borneo Company in Indonesia and finally retired to run his own business based in Chiang Mai, Trisila Company Limited, parent of Citylife, CityNow and CityNews. He married Duangphorn Kemasingki, took Thai nationality and produced one daughter, Pim. His main interest is Thai ceramics see www.shawcollection.com and he has written books on ceramics and other Thai subjects. For five years he was Honorary British Consul at Chiang Mai and on retirement was awarded the MBE.