Howard's Marks autobiography takes him from his South Wales childhood and Oxford University education through his life dealing marijuana and the enormous mythology that accrued around what the tabloids called "the English Toff Drugs King of the World".
Once in a while me and Mark will exchange books, and after this one recently became a film (one that mark saw and I didn't) and him telling me I wouldn't have got the film without reading the book. This is actually the second time I have picked up the book and attempted to read it.
Its obviously about Howard Marks and his life as a drug smuggler and is actually quite interesting overall, about how he managed to arrange smugglings of drugs and how he flew all over the world to make deals. It did take me a little while to get into and get used to his style of writing, which can at the best of times be a little bit chopping and sometimes confusing how he jumps from one time period to the next with no transition in between. And as expected he may have more than one deal going on at once and you have to keep in mind which deals are going and where and to which one he is currently referring to. Marks also throws in some wit into the context and some great little anecdotes of stories he finds along the way. Overall a very interesting read about a different side of life and a different culture. A very factual (enough – if you believe it all and not that its somewhat a little exaggerated) story about how his smugglings happened.
I enjoyed it somewhat but it wasn't a book that I found hard to put down, although it did take me a fair chunk of time to get through. I did feel I couldn't read to much at once, to many different things going on to keep up with it all. But still worth a read.
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