Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Forget You Had a Daughter
Following two years of living abroad in Thailand, Sandra Gregory suddenly became desperately ill and as her medical bills began to mount, her bank account dwindled. In exchange for $2,000 she agreed to carry 89 grams of heroin to Tokyo for a friend, but before she even boarded the plane she was caught by Bangkok Airport security and ultimately sentenced to 25 years inside
...moreebook, 0 pages
Published
May 24th 2010
by Vision Paperbacks
(first published January 1st 2003)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
675)
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...more
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...more
An incredible story that I think everyone should have to read before they take a gap year. It makes you realise how different Britain is from other cultures, but also allows you to compare the British and Thai prison systems (although not with the results you might expect; the Thai prison, in some ways, is much better than the British).
Being a young, British woman who visits Thailand often, it hits very close to home. Sandra Gregory is a very inspirational woman, who was punished far too harshly...more
Being a young, British woman who visits Thailand often, it hits very close to home. Sandra Gregory is a very inspirational woman, who was punished far too harshly...more
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...more
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,...more
Gosh I remember reading this! and she story still haunts me to this day. I still get very paranoid at the airport just in case some one dare asks me to hold or carry something for them, even for a millisecond. This book kept me on the edge of my seat right to the end of the book. I still remember the horror I thought of when I read that she had to sleep in the space on the floor of the size of the prison floor tile due to the mass of inmates. Oh and the bra's...the life sentence, I could go on a...more
A rather tragic tale about a young English lady living in Bangkok who decides to do a drug run to earn money to go home to Britain.
Unfortunately she gets nabbed and gets a 25 year sentence in prison.
The woes and misery she experiences and the friends she makes while in prison make for a fairly interesting story.
She eventually gets a pardon from the king and is sent to prison in Britain which according to her was way more horrific than anything she had experienced in Bangkok!
Interesting reading .
Unfortunately she gets nabbed and gets a 25 year sentence in prison.
The woes and misery she experiences and the friends she makes while in prison make for a fairly interesting story.
She eventually gets a pardon from the king and is sent to prison in Britain which according to her was way more horrific than anything she had experienced in Bangkok!
Interesting reading .
This book by Sandra Gregory was undoubtedly the best book I have read this year. Not only did it change my life, but I would lay awake in bed and think about it while trying to fall asleep.
Ms. Gregory paints a picture of her time in a Bangkok prison that makes me thankful for every minute of my freedom. She admits her crime, and tells her story without feeling sorry for herself. I think every person that travels abroad needs to read this book.
Ms. Gregory paints a picture of her time in a Bangkok prison that makes me thankful for every minute of my freedom. She admits her crime, and tells her story without feeling sorry for herself. I think every person that travels abroad needs to read this book.
Jan 20, 2013
Claire
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
20-books-to-read-2103
This story was brilliant, I saw Sandra's story on banged up abroad so I knew the details of the story, but I was fascinated by her prison experience. Every school should read this book to show kids how prisons are and how simple it is to make a bad decision with dyer consequences. Overall brilliant story to read on a cold snowy day like today.
Brilliant! She made a mistake, paid enormously and survived to tell the tale. Her life was basically an adventurous book, a Hollywood movie written and filmed by itself every day. She put it on paper without being pathetic and without over-dramatizing. I recommend it!
This story has so many emotions on different levels that its hard not to feel sorry for her even though she did a stupid deed,I think the punishment for her was too harsh and the guy is a dog for letting her take the blame but she is too blame for not speaking up imidiately.
This make my feminin side up to the surface.
Why does women have to have so hard but why not men?
Anyway a book about a young woman spending a long time in prison and the consequence with it.
I liked it. A true story thats awful but thats how our world is.
Why does women have to have so hard but why not men?
Anyway a book about a young woman spending a long time in prison and the consequence with it.
I liked it. A true story thats awful but thats how our world is.
I read this years ago, I bought it at the airport. I expected it to be a bit self-serving, maybe snivelly but it was the complete opposite.
Open & honest about what happened and what she endured. A great read.
Open & honest about what happened and what she endured. A great read.
Jul 08, 2008
Selinagreene
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes prison stories and strength of the human spirit
This is an incredible story about a woman who was arrested for smuggling heroin out of Thailand and the time she spent in a Bangkok prison, and later in prison in the UK. What I foudn interesting what that Sandra Gregory felt that doing time in a British prison was harder to cope with than the terrible conditions she endured in Thailand. She said that in Thailand even though safety, health and survival were daily challenges, she was outside and busy enough to keep going. In the British prison, s...more
I read this after hearing the author on the radio. I still remember it years later. A story about a nice girl who makes a stupid mistake which has enormous consequences... Very interesting
A wise lesson to everyone in the world, I really appreciate she wrote this book together with the guy she wrote it with.
Trust your INSTINCTS, and do not, ever, smoggle drugs.
Trust your INSTINCTS, and do not, ever, smoggle drugs.
What a terrible mistake this woman makes but instead of trying to excuse her mistake she is so brutally honest in the telling of her story.
I really enjoyed this book
I really enjoyed this book
Apr 15, 2010
Jason Ruggles
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
travel-true-adventure
The moral of this story? Never, and I mean never try to smuggle drugs out of Thailand.
The things she experienced will make your skin crawl.
The things she experienced will make your skin crawl.
I first heard about this book on my new favorite National Geographic show, "Locked up Abroad." Tivo it, it's always gripping. One episode featured this British woman, Sandra Gregory, who made one stupid decision in her life (very, very, naive stupid decision) and was sentenced to death. I won't give anything away, but her tale of her ordeal is such a page turner I canceled all of my plans and spent two days pouring through the book till it was finished. If you're planning a trip to Thailand and...more
What a harrowing story. After living in Thailand for 2 years, Sandra Gregory is desperate to return home and makes an incredibly stupid decision that changed her life forever. After agreeing to be a drug mule, she was caught red handed and sentenced to one of Bangkok's most notorious prisons. The conditions she describes are gut wrenching and I am still amazed she survived 5 years. Gregory also recounts her eventual transfer to the British prison system -- shockingly, a system that is perhaps ju...more
I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it. Fantastic.
This is an amazing real life story; very interesting and moving.
The story was interesting but could have been shorter.
Absolutely amazing book. Could not put it down.
Book read on holiday.. I enjoyed it.
Awful. So badly written.
Great book!
Loved it
Mar 18, 2007
Risu
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone planning on going to Thailand
I really loved this book. The author, Sandra Gregory, has an amazing story to tell and throughout the book there was always something interesting, whether it was the awful conditions of the Lard Yao prison in Bangkok, the small pleasures she managed to squeeze out of her awful position or the survival tactics she used during her prison sentence. It was very depressing in a lot of places, and very well written.
Having read this back-to-back with 'The Damage Done' it seems that although unpleasant, the women's prison was not a brutal as the men's. Interestingly, the author wished she'd not transferred to complete her sentence in England, as the system is, in many ways worse than in Bangkok.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Jul 12, 2011 02:57pm
Jul 21, 2011 12:28pm