Product Description

Sandra Gregory was living a life in Bangkok that many only dream of - until illness, unemployment and political unrest turned it into a nightmare. Desperate to get home, she agreed to smuggle an addict's personal supply of heroin. She didn't even make it onto the plane. In this remarkably candid memoir, Sandra Gregory tells of the events leading up to her arrest, the horrific conditions in Lard Yao prison, her trial in a language she didn't understand and how it feels to be sentenced to death. Her journey to the UK resumed some four and a half years later when she was transferred to the British prison system, where she had to adapt to a new yet equally harsh regime. Following relentless campaigning by her parents, who refused to forget they had a daughter, she was pardoned by the King of Thailand and released in 2000. "Forget You Had A Daughter" is the extraordinary story of a good woman who made a mistake that changed the rest of her life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18413 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Review
'A searingly honest book.' Mail on Sunday

Customer Reviews

a lesson to be learnt
This book should be handed out to all teens prior to setting off around the world on their travels ; The message is clear , NEVER NEVER smuggle drugs for anyone or for any reason whatsoever. Sandra's book was enthralling and very touching in places. Her desire to get home to her family was the one thing that got her through this terrible ordeal.

Something for everyone to read before travelling SEAsia
I read this book with interest not least because I spent 3 months travelling SE Asia, in Bankok, Koh Samui, and also Cambodia. I must say I was rather jealous of her time in North Thailand!
Anyway back to the book, it is definitely a good read, well written and a bit of an eye-opener.
However, there were two things about the book that bothered me. Firstly, I found it very difficult to relate to someone, who having lost their job for no fault of their own and had acquired gruesome illnesses, felt unable to ask her parents for the flight money home. I cannot comprehend how smuggling drugs was a preferred option. It is evident in the book that her parents were very supportive both before, during and after her ordeal. I'm convinced there was more to it than she claims.
Secondly, I get the feeling that shes hiding some of her true feelings about what happened to her. Some of the accounts feel like they have been written through gritted teeth, as if shes saying what she thinks she should say rather than what she really felt.
I do have some sympathy for her as her punishment probably did outweigh the crime - and the 'rehabilition' process is another debate. But punishments such as this will probably deter a lot of naive or greedy people from attempting the same and help end the drugs world. The real injustice are the people who are there who have been physically forced to commit the crime - Sandra always had the choice

Good Book
I really enjoyed this book. At first i was concerned that Sandra was taking no responsability for her circumstances but by the end she showed a lot of grace.

The conditions she has had to deal with in both Bangkok and Britain is remarkable and the lack of justice when she returns to Britain is disgraceful.

Fair play to her on surviving and on writing a good book.