Mara in the Land of Smiles is a delightful fable set in a mythical country that vaguely resembles Thailand, hundreds of years ago. It recounts the tale of the epic struggle between Mara, the Lord of Delusion, and the followers of The Great Teacher, for the hearts and minds of the populace. Mara's weapons are fear, jealousy, hatred and greed, spread and stoked by his four wicked agents on earth. As the story commences, only four souls have resisted Mara's siren call-the king of the land, an ageing monk, a poor peasant and a wealthy merchant. Mara plots the seduction of these last four virtuous citizens to secure his final victory.
Will hatred and greed defeat love and generosity? Will jealousy and fear vanquish bravery and respect? All shall be revealed in Ajahn Ian's inspiring tale.

Mara in the Land of Smiles, Ian Mayo Smith, Orchid Press, Paperback, 2007, 98 Pages, 16 colour illustrations, $23.00

Dr. Ian Mayo-Smith is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Connecticut, and former Director of the Institute of Public Service International. Before joining the University in 1973 his career took him to many parts of the world. He served in the Intelligence Corps in the British army from 1943 to 1946, in the Testery at Bletchley Park. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in French, Russian and Serbo-Croat, he worked as an Intelligence Corps member with the British Military Mission to Greece from 1948 to 1952. This was followed by a year and a half of dreary work in the War Office. Then he took advantage of a transfer to the former Colonial Service and worked in the Government of the Northern Region of Nigeria. He stayed on after Nigerian Independence and, after leaving the Civil Service, returned as a Ford Foundation "advisor." For his work in Nigeria he was awarded the M.B.E. by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. He returned to Cambridge, and later took another Ford Foundation assignment, this time in Kenya. There, he met and married Krishna Sondhi. A Kenyan of Punjabi origin, Sondhi was the highest ranking woman in the Kenya Civil Service, of whom he was somewhat in awe. (He still is.) In Kenya he was recruited by the University of Connecticut and moved to the U.S.A. and eventually became a citizen. For two years he took an assignment with the United Nations in Arusha, Tanzania. He retired from the University of Connecticut in 1988, becoming an Emeritus Professor. Harvard University then recruited him for a two year term in Brunei as resident representative of the Harvard Institute for International Development, engaged in the reform of the Brunei civil service. Consulting work, mostly at the International Training Center of the I.L.O. in Turin, continued until the author's 70th birthday. Since then he has tried to live the life of the idle rich, the only snag being that he is not rich and he is not very good at staying idle. However for several months each year he does manage to get closer to this ideal, as he and his wife, Krishna, spend the winter months in Thailand. He and his wife Krishna have become a part of the Thai family they stay with. Aged 88, he still finds life worth living and has plenty to do. He is turning out books at the rate of about one a year. And he still remembers those wonderful years when he was a part of an extraordinary team of gifted men and women at Bletchley Park.