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He Was the World's Most Famous Dope Smuggler. but Howard Marks Has Just Turned 60, and Is Discovering the Merits of a Quieter Life In Yorkshire.
IT'S A milestone to test anybody's nerve, but for an international cannabis baron - notoriously well-versed in sex, drugs and rock and roll - turning 60 could have been a particularly bitter pill to swallow. Instead, Howard Marks - whose career as a drugs baron was chronicled in his best-selling book, Mr Nice - says he is rather enjoying his new life in Leeds. The transformation from Mr Nice into Mr Nice Night In is suiting him just fine. "I moved here in December last year and I love it," he says, in his lilting Welsh burr. "I spend most of my time writing and just looking at the Leeds to Liverpool canal." From his city centre apartment by the riverside, he says: "There were pretty sad reasons for me ending up here - first my father died in 1998 and then I moved to Yorkshire to be near my mother, who had been living in Northallerton before she died in 2002.
"But I've had some great times in Leeds - it's been good to me and I kind of like Yorkshire in general. It reminds me of back home in Wales - - with all its traditional coal mining communities. That, plus the place is full of hard nuts.
"I much prefer provincial cities. In Leeds you get everything you want from living in a city but without the messiness of London." During his years as a drugs smuggler, Marks moved 30 tonnes of cannabis from Pakistan to the US, had 43 aliases and 89 phone lines. Then in 1988 the Oxford nuclear physics graduate got caught and was sentenced to 25 years in Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. He served less than seven, and following his release in 1995, knew he couldn't go back to his old ways.
"You get too scared. When you get out of the nick, you tend to feel a bit guilty about the people you left behind and you want to help them somehow, so my plan was to become a paralegal," he explains. "Then I got offered a hundred grand to write a book."
That book was his autobiography, Mr Nice, which kickstarted his post-jail career and became a massive world-wide best-seller. Making the jump from cannabis baron to author might seem like a strange career move, but Marks hasn't found his new life to be too different from the old one. "I'm still travelling around, stoned off me head," he says. "Same as ever, really."
He's spent most of the last year writing his new book, about his travels around South America, and says he has already starting making notes and diaries about his time in Yorkshire.
"A large part of my life experience has been spent here now, so who knows? I don't have any plans to write a book on Yorkshire yet, but I wouldn't rule it out in the future."
His time in Leeds hasn't just been confined to writing and canal-watching though, and has discovered some of the city's best nights out through his pal Dave Beer, Leeds's most successful club promoter. "I try to write as much of possible whenever I'm here - which is probably only about half of my time because I'm travelling around the rest of the time. That doesn't mean I don't go out though, I've managed to get around a variety of the pubs and clubs in the city centre since I've been here. I usually end up in Rehab," he says. But Marks will be shown in a very different light tonight, when the bad-boy writer features on BBC1's Inside Out taking part in some rather more demure activities.
Marks is seen attending a tea dance in Brighouse, playing bowls and taking a narrowboat canal trip.
"I'd never done any of those things before, they just thought it would be a bit of a laugh to get me to try them out, and it was," he says. Marks is still a vociferous campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis, but says the years have mellowed him.
"Basically, I did that sort of pro-active stuff for a long time - standing in police stations and smoking a spliff, but the police tended to leave me alone. "It's still very important to me, but the law isn't going to be changed by people like me. Yes, I'm 60 now but I don't think it's anything to do with my age. I don't sell cannabis or smuggle it any more because I'm too high profile for that. Those days are behind me."
kate.o'hara@ypn.co.uk
Source: Yorkshire Post (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd
Contact: yp.editor@ypn.co.uk
Website: Home | Yorkshire Post
IT'S A milestone to test anybody's nerve, but for an international cannabis baron - notoriously well-versed in sex, drugs and rock and roll - turning 60 could have been a particularly bitter pill to swallow. Instead, Howard Marks - whose career as a drugs baron was chronicled in his best-selling book, Mr Nice - says he is rather enjoying his new life in Leeds. The transformation from Mr Nice into Mr Nice Night In is suiting him just fine. "I moved here in December last year and I love it," he says, in his lilting Welsh burr. "I spend most of my time writing and just looking at the Leeds to Liverpool canal." From his city centre apartment by the riverside, he says: "There were pretty sad reasons for me ending up here - first my father died in 1998 and then I moved to Yorkshire to be near my mother, who had been living in Northallerton before she died in 2002.
"But I've had some great times in Leeds - it's been good to me and I kind of like Yorkshire in general. It reminds me of back home in Wales - - with all its traditional coal mining communities. That, plus the place is full of hard nuts.
"I much prefer provincial cities. In Leeds you get everything you want from living in a city but without the messiness of London." During his years as a drugs smuggler, Marks moved 30 tonnes of cannabis from Pakistan to the US, had 43 aliases and 89 phone lines. Then in 1988 the Oxford nuclear physics graduate got caught and was sentenced to 25 years in Terre Haute Penitentiary, Indiana. He served less than seven, and following his release in 1995, knew he couldn't go back to his old ways.
"You get too scared. When you get out of the nick, you tend to feel a bit guilty about the people you left behind and you want to help them somehow, so my plan was to become a paralegal," he explains. "Then I got offered a hundred grand to write a book."
That book was his autobiography, Mr Nice, which kickstarted his post-jail career and became a massive world-wide best-seller. Making the jump from cannabis baron to author might seem like a strange career move, but Marks hasn't found his new life to be too different from the old one. "I'm still travelling around, stoned off me head," he says. "Same as ever, really."
He's spent most of the last year writing his new book, about his travels around South America, and says he has already starting making notes and diaries about his time in Yorkshire.
"A large part of my life experience has been spent here now, so who knows? I don't have any plans to write a book on Yorkshire yet, but I wouldn't rule it out in the future."
His time in Leeds hasn't just been confined to writing and canal-watching though, and has discovered some of the city's best nights out through his pal Dave Beer, Leeds's most successful club promoter. "I try to write as much of possible whenever I'm here - which is probably only about half of my time because I'm travelling around the rest of the time. That doesn't mean I don't go out though, I've managed to get around a variety of the pubs and clubs in the city centre since I've been here. I usually end up in Rehab," he says. But Marks will be shown in a very different light tonight, when the bad-boy writer features on BBC1's Inside Out taking part in some rather more demure activities.
Marks is seen attending a tea dance in Brighouse, playing bowls and taking a narrowboat canal trip.
"I'd never done any of those things before, they just thought it would be a bit of a laugh to get me to try them out, and it was," he says. Marks is still a vociferous campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis, but says the years have mellowed him.
"Basically, I did that sort of pro-active stuff for a long time - standing in police stations and smoking a spliff, but the police tended to leave me alone. "It's still very important to me, but the law isn't going to be changed by people like me. Yes, I'm 60 now but I don't think it's anything to do with my age. I don't sell cannabis or smuggle it any more because I'm too high profile for that. Those days are behind me."
kate.o'hara@ypn.co.uk
Source: Yorkshire Post (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd
Contact: yp.editor@ypn.co.uk
Website: Home | Yorkshire Post
