Becoming Mr Nice : The Howard Marks Archive

The million-selling Mr Nice was one of the most successful non-fiction books of the last two decades. Now in Becoming Mr Nice, Howard Marks's daughter, the writer and lawyer Amber Marks, has collated and curated highlights from Howard ́s extensive and previously unseen personal archive.

The book features, jottings, drawings and photographs from Howard's childhood and Teddy boy years in post-war Britain, treasured mementos and correspondence from the psychedelic scene at Oxford University, dodgy smuggling references on the backs of envelopes, a fascinating typescript account by Howard of his time on the run in the 1970s, hilarious transcripts from Howard's trial at the Old Bailey in 1981, records of the international surveillance operation mounted against Howard, heart-breaking first-hand accounts of his and Judy ́s arrest in 1988, telephone transcripts of coded smuggling transactions, false identity documents, unpublished prison writings, the hitherto undisclosed defence Howard had prepared to run before pleading guilty and sentenced to twenty five years imprisonment, personal accounts of his time in prison and the freedom of information requests that helped him to secure release.