Escape: The Past
David McMillan


In this gripping prequel to "Escape: The true story of the only Westerner ever to escape from Thailand’s Bangkok Hilton", which has sold over 50,000 copies worldwide in print and is now an ebook bestseller in the UK, drug smuggler-turned-bestselling author David McMillan tells it from the beginning. Throwing away an expensive education as a teenager then a promising executive career, McMillan hit rock bottom only to shake off the dust from the dirt-floor warehouse that was his home to make his first million dealing drugs at age 22.

McMillan peels away the layers of seedy Patpong’s massive candy-store brothels as he scours the Thai capital’s lowest dives seeking bosses with strong connections and weak ethics. He details what it took to arm himself and his teams of couriers with dozens of passports to tread the clandestine path that frustrated international border guards for years.

Memories of the New York highlife, London’s Mayfair townhouses and Concorde’s soft landings soon fade, however, when the law eventually catches up with the young villain in Australia. Following a six-month Supreme Court trial with 126 witnesses, McMillan is sent down for a long stretch yet he still hits the headlines from behind bars with a failed helicopter breakout.

David is not yet thirty and ahead lies Peru, Afghanistan and more adventures in Thailand with as many escapes as acquittals. This is just the beginning.