Howard Marks
- MR NICE: An Autobiography
hbk: Secker & Warburg, (London) UK, 9 September 1996
pbk: Minerva, (London) UK, June 1997
ISBN 0-436-20305-7 (UK hbk),,, ISBN 0-7493-9569-9 (UK pbk)
non-fiction, autobiography, smuggling, marijuana, hashish, psychedelics, neurologic, black market, counterculture, social history, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s
Jacket design by John Hamilton. Front cover photograph by Steve Pyke. Back cover photograph © Enterprise News.
"During the mid 1980s Howard Marks had forty-three aliases, eighty-nine phone lines, and owned twenty-five companies trading throughout the world. Bars, recording studios, 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 and soon he was moving much larger quantities into Europe and America in the equipment of touring rock bands. The academic life began to lose its allure. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty 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. After many years and a worldwide operation by the Drug Enforcement Agency, 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.
"Numerous newspaper profiles, books and television documentaries have been devoted to Howard Marks' life. Told with humour, charm and candour, Mr Nice is his own extraordinary story." [publisher's bumpf, Mr Nice, UK hbk, September 1996]
"There is something for everyone in this book. It being witty, intelligent, heart rending and a top story that is hard to put down." --Tim (in Frontline , Spring 1997).
"Mr Marks is one of the most likeable characters I've ever met. This is a remarkable story. Read it." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space, September 1996).
Highly recommended.
Audio-Visual Material
The Dream Dealer
(BBC television documentary about Howard Marks)
High Time
(film rights to this book have been bought... film forthcoming)
Mr Nice by Howard Marks
(audio cassette... Howard Marks reading from his book)
Super Furry Animals
(band website, new releases... the Fuzzy Logic album contains the music track "Hangin' With Howard Marks" with added vocals by Howard Marks)
Also See
- Hunting Marco Polo: The Pursuit and Capture of Howard Marks by Paul Eddy and Sara Walden
(1991, non-fiction... smuggling, cannabis, hashish, black market... as seen from the perspective of the DEA...
"Howard Marks, and most of his co-accused, also cooperated, were interviewed at great length, and their point of view is very much reflected." --Paul Eddy, in a personal e-mail, Saturday 22 March 1997.)
- High Time by David Leigh
(1984, non-fiction, biography... smuggling, cannabis, hashish, black market... revised and re-issued in 1988 as Howard Marks: His Life and High Times, which contained 11 pages of additional text)
- Lights Out for the Territory by Iain Sinclair
(1997, non-fiction, reportage... with photographs and illustrations by Marc Atkins... contains a brief encounter with Howard Marks)
Additional Links
And:
To contact Howard Marks himself:
e-mail:
Of Related Interest
Send comments, additions, corrections, contributions to:
hwt@anachron.demon.co.uk
Return to Mark/Space
Page compiled by Henry W.Targowski and Howard Marks, with input from: Paul Eddy, Jack Girling