Publisher's Synopsis
'Becoming Mr Nice is a brilliant read with so much that I didn't know' - Tim Burgess
'Funny, brave and deeply personal, this remarkable book records the tenderness of father and daughter and the lives beyond the legend' - Salena Godden
Welcome to the personal archives of Britain's biggest dope smuggler.
For 40 years Howard Marks traversed the globe: an international businessman who became an inmate in America's toughest penitentiary before standing for election in the United Kingdom.
Becoming Mr Nice reveals an extraordinary montage of previously unseen material from his roller-coaster life, interwoven with his daughter Amber's incisively researched and deadpan commentary.
Jottings, drawings and photographs from Howard's Welsh childhood and Teddy boy years in post-war Britain Treasured mementos from the psychedelic scene at Oxford University and revolutionary 1960s London A fascinating typescript account by Howard of his time on the run in the 1970s Hilarious transcripts and surveillance exhibits from Howard's trial at the Old Bailey in 1981, where he was famously acquitted of importing 15 tons of Colombian grass into the British Isles after calling evidence from an agent of the Mexican secret services Records of the international surveillance operation mounted against Howard at the height of the war on drugs Heart-breaking first-hand accounts of Howard and Judy's arrest in 1988 Hitherto undisclosed defence Howard had prepared to run before giving in to plead guilty and being sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in one of the toughest penitentiaries in the US; personal accounts of his time in prison Freedom of Information requests that helped him to secure release
Peppered with comic observations from Howard's private letters, this book provides a uniquely personal insight into one of Britain's most remarkable characters. Becoming Mr Nice is the essential companion volume to Marks' million-copy-selling autobiography Mr Nice and a comprehensive, illustrated introduction to Howard Marks for a new generation.
