The family of an Australian writer jailed then pardoned for insulting the Thai monarchy Monday denied a claim he had sought literary fame by deliberately provoking authorities.

Melbourne's The Age newspaper Monday published allegations by a former colleague of Australian Harry Nicolaides that he had discussed breaking the law of lese majeste , or slandering the monarchy, while writing his novel "Verisimilitude".

"Before the book's publication, in fact, Harry rather cavalierly suggested that going to prison for lese majeste could bring him literary fame," Heath Dollar, who once taught with Nicolaides at the Mae Fah Luang University in northern Thailand, told The Age .

Nicolaides, 41, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to slandering the Thai royal family but received a royal pardon after spending five months in prison and was released last Friday.

Dollar claimed Nicolaides once showed him the offending passage of his self-published novel. Dollar advised the writer to remove it but his advice was ignored.

"Harry believed it best to create a sensation, a publicity stunt to land an author on the literary map," Dollar told the newspaper.

Brother denied allegations

Nicolaides' brother Forde denied the allegations, saying the novel's manuscript was submitted to Thai authorities before its publication and no officials had indicated it may be offensive.

"He says it's certainly no publicity stunt, he certainly wouldn't have taken any such risk for an offence that carries 15 years jail," Forde Nicolaides told Sky News.

"He has no recollection of speaking to Heath about the book."

He said his brother was catching up on sleep after flying home to an emotional family reunion in Melbourne Saturday and was still "in a state of shock" at his abrupt release from a Thai jail.

"With the benefit of hindsight, he probably has some regrets," he said.

"At the time he wrote the book, he didn't realise it was offensive."

Thailand has some of the strictest laws in the world protecting revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his family from insult, but media freedom groups have accused authorities of abusing the law to suppress dissent.

Thai authorities have banned nearly 4,000 websites in recent months for allegedly insulting the monarchy. Police said last week that more than 17 criminal cases of insulting the royal family are currently active.