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: #7974 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

Smashes pre-conceptions.
This is the first autobiography that i have ever read, and was a bit wary when i chose this one. I thought i knew what 'type' of person smuggled drugs, and was expecting the book to be all excuses on Sandra's part. It was not. Once i started this book i could not put it down. An absolutely amazing story which perfectly represents her honesty, courage and strength. She doesnt makes excuses for her crime, just attempts to explain why she did it. The horrors reported in the Bankok jail are horrendous, and the British system and prison fairs little better when on paper. But such tales are not written in an attempt to make the reader pity Sandra for her crime. Sandra's strength is amazing and comes across perfectly in this book- she doesn't ask the reader to pity her, and never attacks the country in which she was caught. A truly great read that i would recommend to anyone.

A Journey of Redemption
I thought I knew this story already from press coverage but Forget You Had A Daughter is an astonishing insight into the reality of the life of a girl who made a horrendous mistake but is not a criminal. She committed a criminal act but her biggest crime was stupidity. It is an emotional ride, from the first chapter, when the reader is pulled in and shares her nightmare experience, until the last chapter where she is finally reconciled with her family who fought tooth and nail to see justice done. I found myself crying. This book is not about self pity, Sandra Gregory knows she committed a crime, she knows she deserved punishment but acknowledges the sentence was a little too hard. Gregory does not want pity, she has recounted her painful experience in order that no one else will go through such a harrowing and traumatic journey. Read this book!!

An insight into life on the inside in Bankok & Britain
This book make excellent reading, not least because the author Sandra Gregory, never denies that she did wrong, or that she deserved to be punished for her crimes (drug smuggling). It is interesting to read an account by someone who doesn't believe she was wrongly imprisoned as son many books about prison are about people who the wrter believes shouldn't be there for one reason or another. I believe it takes a huge amount of courage, whatever we have done, to stand up and say "yes I did do that, and yes I was wrong and I regrett it, and I deserve to be punished " How many of us can do that? She eventually received a Royal pardon from the King of Thialand, but she herself says she only asked for a pardon, she never said she deserved one...that was for others to decide. She gives a very straightforward account of prison life both on Thialand and in Britain. Both stretched her to her very limits in different ways and for different reasons. Conditions and overcrowding in the Thai jail were appaling, but as she says at least prisoners were free to wander around the prison. In Britain living conditions were much better, but being locked up for most of the day and lack of uncertainty about how to act or what was happening made her stay in Britains prisons equally difficult. Incidentally this is one of my Kellogs books - hope the other prove to be just as good!