Miss Bangkok is a vivid, powerful and moving memoir of a life spent in prostitution in Thailand. Poor and uneducated, Bua Boonmee escaped an abusive marriage only to end up in the go-go bars of Patpong. There, in the notorious red-light district of Bangkok, she succumbed to prostitution in an effort to support her family.Bua’s story is one of resilience and courage in the face of abuse and poverty. Her confessions will make you laugh and cry, cringe and applaud. She will change you...

Written from his cell and smuggled out page by page, Colin Martin’s autobiography chronicles an innocent man’s struggle to survive inside one of the world’s most dangerous prisons. After being swindled out of a fortune, Colin was let down by the hopelessly corrupt Thai police. Forced to rely upon his own resources, he tracked down the man who conned him and, drawn into a fight, he accidentally killed that man’s bodyguard. Colin was arrested, denied a fair trial, convicted of murder and thr...

Hell in Barbados is the powerful true story of a drug-addicted smuggler who found his salvation in the unlikeliest of places. Told with disarming honesty, the book propels the reader into the mind of an addict and shows us the depths of degradation one man sunk to before finding the inner strength to save himself.Terry Donaldson met with success early in life but his struggle with addiction soon became an all-out war. His Jekyll and Hyde lifestyle – TV presenter by day, whilst he s...

Angels of Pattaya offers an insightful collection of interviews with a number of prostitutes working in Thailand. The women are given a rare opportunity to tell their story in their own words.The women reveal how they became involved in the business, their hopes for the future and what they think of their “customers”. Some are from the poorest rural provinces of Thailand, others come from relatively well-to-do families in the cities. Some are in the business of desperation for mone...

This extraordinary book is an intimate portrait of Thailand’s ladyboys: the men who have chosen to become women. Funny, passionate, angry and provocative, Ladyboys is a no-holds-barred look at the secret lives of Thailand’s transsexual men. The book offers intimate details of the lives that they’ve never publicly revealed. They talk about the choices they’ve made, their relationships, families, frustrations and hopes. The stories include those of an exotic cabaret performer, a sex worker a...

Bang Kwang Prison is one of the most notorious penal institutions in the world. Located seven miles north of Bangkok city in the Nonthaburi Province, the prison is home to over 8,000 inmates, among them ruthless killers, rapists, drug traffickers, conmen and thieves.The Bangkok Hilton is understaffed, overcrowded, and filled with inmates who struggle with insanity as they spend the first months of their sentences chained in leg irons. Prisoners outnumber guards by 50 to 1. Until no...

Leslie “Ike” Atkinson is one of U.S. history’s most original gangsters. According to law enforcement sources, he and his gang smuggled, by conservative estimates, 1,000 pounds of heroin annually from Bangkok, Thailand, to U.S. military bases during their period of operation from 1968 to 1975.The Bangkok Connection: Trafficking Heroin from Asia to the USAchronicles the story of Atkinson, a charismatic former U.S. army master sergeant, career smuggler, card shark and doting family ma...

Jane had a pretty good life. She was a single mother, and she worked hard for her three kids, who meant the world to her. One autumn evening she met someone she believed to be the man of her dreamsthe only thing missing in her nearly perfect life. He was handsome, gentle, quiet, and kind.Eleven months later, they bought a home and were married. Jane was so happy. Soon, however, her daughter, Michelle, began to change; she became distant and withdrawn. Something was wrong, but Jane ...

Everything about an Indian wedding is signi?cantthe mantras, the sacred ?re in the middle of the altar, the seven rounds around the ?re, and the colors of the brides sari. This day of an arranged marriage for the Sharma family is drenched in heavy rain, but far deeper problems lay within this particular Indian family, who has lived in Canada for the last thirty years.For Gangga Sharma, marrying Subash has been her dreamuntil her wedding day, when her dream turns into a nightmare. F...

Sailing instructor Donald MacNeil was delighted when he was hired to skipper a yacht across the Mediterranean. The pay was good and the work was easy - or so he thought. Then the truth was revealed: he had to sail to South America to collect one of the biggest shipments of cocaine ever bound for the UK. And to the gangsters who hired him, refusal was not an option.There followed a harrowing journey to Venezuela, where almost £50 million of coke was waiting. But someone had tipped o...

Julie grew up in the heart of Dublin’s north inner city, in Sheriff Street. Living in this tough area, she was exposed to crime and drugs. She started using heroin when she was 16. By the time she was 18 she was a chronic addict. This story details how she spent the next four years living on the streets of Dublin; dealing drugs and stealing to feed her habit. It is a snapshot of how a young girl became a victim of circumstances. It happened in Dublin, but it could have happened anywhere in...

Cocaine, the Gulf Connection is notabout cocaine gangs and shootouts in Mexican border towns,but rather it details the complex workingsof a sophisticated smuggling operation thathas gone unknown to the Mexican and U.S.governments for thirteen years. The success ofthe smuggling operation comes from a highdegree of compartmentalization, which allowsno chance for any one piece of the Companyto betr...