Jim Algie has been a punk rock musician, journalist, wildlife conservationist and security guard in a lunatic asylum. His non-fiction collection Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic and his short fiction collection, The Phantom Lover and Other Thrilling Tales of Thailand, illuminate the country's dark and sexy side. In 2018, he published an expanded version of On the Night Joey Ramone Died, part memoir, part punk history and part literature with a front cover blurb from noted mystery author Timothy Hallinan, "The funniest sad book and the saddest funny book I've read in a long time.