Nothing to Declare: Prison Memoirs

by Taki (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1991

  $9.76

  World-class athlete, playboy, war correspondent, heir to a Greek shipping fortune and creator of the High Life column in The Spectator , Taki has moved among the rich, the powerful, the titled and the famous in London, New York, Gstaad and the Riviera - wherever fun or stimulation was to be had. In 1984, while passing through customs at Heathrow airport, Taki was arrested for possession of cocaine. Never one to shirk responsibility for his actions, he pleaded guilty and was sent to jail. This is the account of the three months he spent in Pentonville. His jail term put a slight crimp in his lifestyle and he pulls no punches in describing the squalor and danger of prison conditions. But ever adaptable, he struck up frienships with such characters as Tony the Loon, Warren the ex-rock promoter and Sid the long-time professional thief. His job as gym orderly - karate training came in useful here - provided some help in getting the time to pass. He also had plenty of time to reflect upon the privileged life he has led and interspersed with the story of his incarceration are tales of his adventures with the likes of Gianni Agnelli, the Aga Khan, William Buckley and a cast of rascals and rakes, intellectuals and madmen the world over.

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $4.41

  This is the story of how international socialite and transatlantic columnist Taki spent some time in 1984 in one of Her Majesty's institutions on a charge of bringing cocaine into the country. Having spent a perfect summer in the pools and on the tennis courts of Long Island, Taki was then thrown into less-than-glorious Pentonville - where he found himself bedded down with a quite different kind of clientele from the rich New Yorkers he had left behind. In telling the story of his arrest, trial and prison experiences, Taki paints a portrait of his surroundings, his fellow inmates and of himself.