Mr Nice : An Autobiography

Review A racy yarn with plenty of globe trotting colour. The Independent Frequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal GQ A man who makes Peter Pan look like a geriatric with sleeping sickness Loaded A folk legend-Howard Marks has huge charisma. He sounds like Richard Burton and looks like a Rolling Stone Daily Mail Marks weaves a fascinating story spiced with brilliant detail, far stronger than fiction FHM Magazine Product Description During the mid-'80s Howard Marks had forty-three aliases and eighty-nine phone lines, and he owned twenty-five companies trading throughout the world. Bars, recording studios, offshore banks -- all were money-laundering vehicles serving the core business: dope dealing. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons of marijuana and had contact with organizations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA, and the Mafia. Following a worldwide operation by the DEA, he was busted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison at Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. He was released in April 1995 after serving seven years of his sentence. With pages of photographs, and told with humor, charm, and candor, Mr Nice is his own extraordinary story. Mr Nice has been one of the biggest-selling memoirs in Britain in recent memory, topping both the Sunday Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists. Also translated into eight languages, this edition offers American readers the first-ever opportunity to read this riveting book. "Frequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal." -- GQ "Only the Welsh could have produced ... Howard Marks.... In or out of handcuffs, he is always welcome in my home." -- Robert Sabbag, author of Snowblind "A folk legend ... Howard Marks has huge charisma. He sounds like Richard Burton and looks like a Rolling Stone." -- Daily Mail (London) "Marks weaves a fascinating story spiced with brilliant detail, far stronger than fiction." -- FHM Autobiography THE BOOK: During the mid 1980's Howard Marks had forty three aliases, eighty nine phone lines and owned twenty five companies throughout the world. Whether bars, recording studios or offshore banks, all were money laundering vehicles serving the core activity: dope dealingMarks began to deal small amounts of hashish while doing a postgraduate philosopy course at Oxford and soon he was moving much larger quantities into Europe and into America the equipment of touring British rock bands. The academic life began to lose its allure. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to fifty tons from Pakistan and Thailand to America and Canada and had contact with organisations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA and the Mafia. Numerous newspaper profiles, books and television documentaries have been devoted to Howard Mark's life. Touched with humour charm and candour, Mr Nice is his own extraordinary story. During the mid 1980s Howard Marks had43 aliases,89 phone lines, and owned25 companies throughout the world. Whether bars, recording studios, or offshore banks, all were money laundering vehicles serving the core activity: dope dealing. Marks began to deal small amounts of hashish while doing a postgraduate philosophy course at Oxford, but soon he was moving much larger quantities. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to50 tons from Pakistan and Thailand to America and Canada and had contact with organizations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA, and the Mafia.This is his extraordinary story. At the height of his powers, Howard Marks - or'Mr Nice'- was smuggling up to thirty tons of dope from Pakistan and Thailand to America and Canada. How did a nice Welsh boy and Oxford graduate end up with forty-three aliases, eighty-nine phone lines and twenty-five companies to his name, and contacts within MI6, the CIA, the IRA and the Mafia? Mr Nice is Howard Marks'staggering story of Britain's most wanted man: the dazzling ascent and crashing comedown of one of the twentieth century's most notorious and eccentric drug lords. Audacious, seductive and rambunctious, it is a true crime classic. "He was Britain's most wanted man. He has just spent seven years in America's toughest penitentiary. You''ll like him."--Cover