I don’t believe she’s as innocent as she makes out. One minute she’s talking about stuffing a cat in a bag and throwing it in the lake to drown it and the next she says she’s not as bad as the guards think and wouldn’t kill a spider. You go to Thailand and know there’s a death sentence for smuggling drugs and yet you still do it? Why? Interesting read to a point but I don’t trust the narrative.

A touching story of one woman's heartbreaking journey through the Bangkok Hilton and the prison system in the UK. It is a story that actually transforms the reader into Sandra Gregory's own experiences and how she managed to make it through a horrific prison term and finally through the help of her parents seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! This is an excellent read and a lesson learned to late when we make the wrong decisions.

I read the Damage Done a couple of years ago which is also about life in a Bangkok prison but from the male perspective. It made for pretty horrific reading, but at the same time weirdly fascinating. So when I heard about this book I felt it needed reading to see life in a Bangkok prison from a female perspective, a few months later I found a copy in my local charity shop, took it home and there it sat on a shelf for a while!This starts at the airport being found out by the police and I thought,...

This is a book I'd have never chosen of my own accord but it was given to me by a bookcrossing buddy & I'm really glad I read it. It's surprisingly easy to read considering the subject matter but I guess that's down to the way the story is told, Gregory gets on with it no-nonsense-like & manages to get you to empathise with her situation without feeling sorry for herself.I have to say it's really made me question my opinions of justice & the penal system, (I was very much a "lock-'em-up-&-throw-...

Finally finished this book. Not a bad read at all but I just could not like her. To me there was something so unlikeable about her. I did feel sorry for her family though.Must have been so hard. Young people do make mistakes and this one cost her a lot. Reading about the differences between the jail in Bangkok or the UK ones I would still prefer the UK ones.The men jail in Bangkok are worse. Interesting that the foreign women who had to stay there long all learned Thai and when they did that mad...

This was better than I thought it was going to be. I bought it years ago, after seeing the film Brokedown Palace (about two American girls who are jailed in Thailand for drug smuggling), but it's sat on my bookshelf for well over ten years without tempting me, as it always looked a bit airport-book-ish.It's surprisingly well written, and Gregory is humble in her account. For me, her treatment in the UK prison service was far more shocking than her experiences in Thailand. Although at times I won...

I think every teenager and young adult should have to read this book so if at any time someone asks them to carry drugs for them, especially in a foregin country, they know to say no and get the hell out of there!!! It just goes to show you how making one bad decision could affect the rest of your life. Sandra was lucky she survived all of her prison stints, especially the one in Thailand. I knew foreign prisons were bad but what she had to endure was absolutely horrific. She was honest and fort...

This was such a captivating autobiography by Sandra Gregory, who retells her (honestly very disturbing) experiences in numerous prisons after being caught attempting to smuggle heroin out of Thailand in order to fund her plane ticket home. Heart-wrenching at times, shocking at others, I was completely rapt at how Sandra managed to endure the events of her life. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good autobiography!

Wow what a way to end up, this is very heartening story about how one bad decision can change not only your life but all those who care about you. A good read.

The grim account of a convicted British tourist in Thailand and UK system prisons in the 1990's, facing never ending ordeals after making a silly decision to help her to get back home. After the dreadful decision, it took Sandra Gregory almost ten years to see her family. The book released in 2003, thought it paints a rather dark narrative about life as a inmate, expect no less, its also about love and words that sadly are kept hidden until everything all falls apart.

This was an interesting book. I felt horrible for everything Sandra went through. The writing needed some work. It was all over the place with no rhyme or reason. I still marveled at how she made it through everything.

Sandra is a young woman, who doesn't always think things through, and decides to go to Thailand for an adventure. During her time there several times she is asked whether she would be prepared to take gemstones, drugs and sex slaves in to other countries. She refuses each time thinking she wouldn't be so silly. Following a period of illness, she is desperate to get home to her parents and the UK, doesn't have any money and doesn't want to ask her parents for money for an airfare. Along comes Rob...

I finished reading this book this morning, and thought it was an extremely interesting read. I haven't seen the Nicole Kidman film, but am interested in autobiographies of interesting people and people who have been in interesting situations.I found the book was an interesting read and a Sandra seemed to be open and honest about her situation and what had happened to her. What did irritate me slightly about her though was her constant comparison of herself to other criminals both in Thailand and...

This is the story of Sandra Gregory and her time in prison for attempting to smuggle drugs out of Thailand. She does part of her time in Thailand and the rest in the United Kingdom, where she is from. Although she was guilty of attempting to smuggle the drugs, the sentence that she received was harsh. She received at first a life sentence, that was then reduced to 25 years. This was longer than some murders in Thailand. The story takes you from shortly before her trip to Thailand, through to her...

I got this book as I was looking forward to delving into the reasons Sandra Gregory had for trying to traffic drugs out of Thailand, a country not exactly known for its leniency, as well as Sandra's experiences in jail.The author does go into great detail on her though process and is candid that she was not smart and let her exhaustion and sickness along with her desperation for home to lead her into a terrible decision. What was interesting was how close she was to getting away with it as Thai

I liked this book a lot. Perhaps Gregory is not the best writer, but there is a sense of honesty that pervades the pages, and while there is perhaps much that is moralistic (and rightly so) the novel also manages to be an effective indictment of the prison system, both in Thailand and in the U.K. The novel is straightforward and chronological, and the detail is often graphic and disturbing. One thing that struck me and dragged me in to the novel was always the thought, from the beginning that "w...

Somehow, we begin to question the purpose of prison punishment. The prison punishment takes away the offender’s freedom and they should take responsibility for their wrongdoings. However, due to the poor conditions in the prison, stressful guards with their high-risk but low-pay job plus grouping together hundreds of crime offenders in a limited perimeter, the initial purpose to educate a crime offender to be responsible for their committed crime has turned into a survival school. If they have t...

I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars, if I could, as the last part of the book seemed to be just rushing through the last 4 years of her imprisonment. This autobiography is very good, in helping one to realize how one stupid decision can truly change the course of ones whole life. The author is very forthright in admitting that she did wrong as she was caught carrying heroin for someone else----trying to leave Thailand. She served about 5 years in a Thai prison, known as the Bangkok Hilton,

Reading this incredible story reminded me to be grateful for every minute of my life. While reading the book in bed sipping on coffee, I could walk to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat or go for a long hot bath if I felt like it. Sandra Gregory could not do any of this. She spent years in jail under shocking and appalling circumstances. Her crime? She naively attempted to traffic heroin out of Thailand for a near-stranger in order to make enough money to fly home to England. She initially receiv...

As someone ignorant of Sandra Gregory's story, I expected this book to be an account of her time in Lard Yao, or the notorious Bangkok Hilton. While this is certainly a main part of the book, there is more to it than that. Around the first quarter tells of the author's trip to Thailand and her adventures there. Eventually she becomes desperate to return home and accepts an offer to smuggle drugs to get the money she needs to pay for the journey. Of course, she gets caught and suffers the consequ...

I like to read non fiction sometimes. This book gripped me straight away. What a sad story. I cannot believe the conditions of the prisons in Thailand, and the treatment received in UK prisons. This woman’s sentence was far too harsh, especially when compared with criminals that receive more lenient sentences for doing worse crimes. Sandra learnt her lesson instantly, told the truth at trial and kept out of trouble throughout, but it didn’t seem to help her case at all, and she was dealt a lot o...

I always like a true story, and I like it even better when it's honest, brave and compelling. Sandra readily admits that she made a stupid decision that got her landed in prison(s), but the tale that allows us to understand how she could possibly get there is an interesting one, and it proves that sometimes we can really be so desperate to get home that we'll do anything. As the story unfolded, I couldn't believe the ordeal that she went through before finally being given the sweet release of ho...

I had already watched a progam on TV about Sandra Gregory and her story of being locked up abroad; and it was after watching the program on TV that I decided to read the book. I really enjoyed the book! Sandra Gregory takes you on her journey - the events leading up to her deciding to carry drugs, being caught, her year at the prison at Lard Yao, and then after in various prisons in the UK. She writes with such honesty and is very humble. She doesn't make excuses for her crime, and accepts that

I was previously of the opinion that anyone stupid enough to attempt to smuggle drugs and get caught deserves whatever sentence they are given, even if this means death. However, reading Sandra Gregory’s harrowing account of the time she spent in prison first in Thailand and then in the UK made me realise just how unfair the justice system can be. The thing that shocked me the most was not the conditions Gregory had to endure in Thailand, gruesome as they were, but the mental damage she suffered...

I love a real life overseas prison story - and I always tend to get drawn to them when I go on holiday! It seems it is a bit of a tradition for me now. Anyway there isn't much I can say about the horrendous situation Sandra finds herself in that hasn't been said. It is a lot like Damage Done (though perhaps not quite so brutal) but from the female side. You get the usual background story, where you want to scream at the pages "don't do it!" but of course she does, as otherwise you wouldn't be re...

My first question is if she was so desperate to get home why didn't she contact the Embassy and tell them of her plight. She didn't want to ask her parents for the return fare home but wouldn't you ask for the money with a promise of paying back the money. That was the first thing that occurred to me.This is a book which is worthy of reading, it clearly describes in graphic detail the repercussions for smuggling drugs. The conditions and the fellow inmates. It would be good for books like these

Sandra Gregory's warts and all account of her time served in the notorious 'Bangkok Hilton' prison is both gritty and highly emotional as you would expect from any kind of prison diary/recollections. Her sentence was brutally harsh for the crime that she committed, and the book details her experience from the initial arrest at the airport, to the final royal pardon and her release, including an eye-opening section on the time she spent at Holloway when she was allowed to return to the UK. The ti...

I saw the author briefly on the news remarking on the experience of the two young women recently detained in Peru and night her book. I've been interested lately in people's personal accounts of their experiences of being caught up in horrific situations. Gregory's descriptions are vivid, but the story doesn't make clear to me how she managed to improve her situation. No lawyers mentioned, and changes seem to happen magically. As a descriptive narrative of someone paying dearly for a rather sill...

I think this was a very honest view of her circumstances, even when she explains that she found a Thai jail easier to cope with than the English system. I presumed that once she got back here she was on the easy ground but apparently not. This a good informative read and opened my eyes to how easy these young people get sucked into this easy road. I am sure she was just a little nieve but I wish all young people travelling to these countries would read her book to realise how easy it is to get c...

A very good book, Gregory is very honest and it's easy to picture the prisons she was incarcerated in as well as the people she met. Her story is sad and full of regret, I'm glad she's happy now. I was disappointed that the Lard Yao stuff ended very abruptly, I would have liked to have known how she was transferred to England. I was also dismayed by her opinion of Rose West, there is so much evidence of what she did with Fred West; it's bizarre that Gregory questioned her guilt. I suppose she c...