Smyth first studied Thai at the School of Oriental and African Studies, as part of an undergraduate degree in South East Asian Studies.^[2] One of his tutors there was E. H. S. Simmonds.^[3]

He lived in Thailand from the mid 1970s until the early 1980s, teaching English first at Thammasat University and then at Srinakharinwirot University.^[2]

He received his Ph.D. from SOAS in 1988. His doctoral dissertation was a study of the literary works of Kulap Saipradit.^[3]

For a number of years, he was a lecturer in Thai and Cambodian at SOAS.^[4][5]

Books edit

• Smyth, David A., and Manas Chitakasem (1984). Linguaphone Thai Course. London: Linguaphone Institute. ISBN 9780747310051.
• Smyth, David A. (1995). Teach Yourself Thai. London: Hodder Headline. ISBN 9780340590416.
• Smyth, David A. (1995). Colloquial Cambodian. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. ISBN 9780415100069.
• Smyth, David A., and Tran Kien (1995). Tuttle Practical Cambodian Dictionary. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 9780804819541.
• Smyth, David A. (2002). Thai: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415226141. (Second edition published in 2014. ISBN 9780415510349.)
• Smyth, David A. (2019). Kulap Saipradit ('Sriburapha'): Journalist and Writer in Early 20th Century Siam. Bangkok: White Lotus Press. ISBN 9789748434711.

Papers edit

• Smyth, David A. (1984). "Sībūraphā and Some Ups and Downs in a Literary Career". Paper presented to the International Conference on Thai Studies, Bangkok, 22–24 August.
• Smyth, David A. (1987). "The Later Short Stories of Sībūraphā". In Jeremy H. C. S. Davidson (ed.), Laī Sū’ Thai: Essays in Honour of E. H. S. Simmonds, pp. 98–115. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
• Smyth, David A. (2001). "Farangs and Siamese: A Brief History of Learning Thai". In M. R. Kalaya Tingsabadh and Arthur S. Abramson (eds.), Essays in Tai Linguistics, pp. 277–285. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press.

Translations edit

• Saipradit, Kulap (1990). Behind the Painting and Other Stories. Translated by David A. Smyth. Singapore: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195889628.
• Surangkhanang, K. (1994). The Prostitute. Translated by David A. Smyth. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9789676530790.
• Saipradit, Kulap, et al. (1998). The Sergeant's Garland and Other Stories. Translated by David A. Smyth and Manas Chitakasem. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9789835600388.
• Korbjitti, Chart (2003). No Way Out. Translated by David A. Smyth. Nakhon Rachasima: Howling Books. ISBN 9789749138519.
• Navarat, M. R. Nimitmongkol (2009). The Dreams of an Idealist. Translated by David A. Smyth. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. ISBN 9789749511619.