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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Chrissi (011202) Rating (8/10) Review
by Chrissi The Mr Nice of the title is an adopted false name, and it really does seem to fit. Mr Marks seems to have been one of those people who just happened to be not only in the correct place but also the correct position at the right time. He went to Oxford, and started smoking cannabis at a time when the drug was still seen as an eccentricity, rather than a crime. As a result of his cannabis use, he seems not to have done that well at University but he did get to meet lots of interesting people with his room becoming a drop-in centre for the youth of Oxford. What comes across throughout the book is that he not only wanted to make money and have a good time, but as a user of the recreational drugs he imported he wanted everyone else to enjoy what he sees as a harmless bit of fun. He was not purely financially motivated and the crimes that he committed were in the course of his business, rather than because he wanted to break the law. I read this with incredulity and absolute fascination for the deviousness that had to be employed bringing this stuff in. We were sitting on a German train when I came to the bit about their main receipt and distribution centre, and I had to read it out loud - it was at Trelleck which we had been to only two weeks before - I had thought that Trelleck was a tiny place and it amused all of us to think of it as a hotbed of illegal activities. They say that regular cannabis use damages memory function, but this guy has the most amazing recall, and it is the early stories that are the best, the later recollections are a bit melancholy, with him and his wife being arrested and held for extradition to America in a Spanish jail. The saddest thing was that his wife pleaded guilty for something she did not do, to be able to get back to their children, and then could not visit him in jail in America because she had a criminal record. If
you fancy a good story and are fond of autobiographies, then this
is a seriously good book. This guy deserves to be as famous as
Timothy Leary but in a very English way. I cannot imagine for
one second that the dirtier side of the illegal drugs trade did
not come to involve him, but it would seem that he was very divorced
from the crime that comes to be associated with all forms of drugs
and appears to be a very personable man. It makes for good reading. |
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