[1] Published in 1996, it became an international bestseller due in large part to the humour and unabashed bravado the author uses to describe his life and the sheer scale of his drug deals involving, among others, the CIA, MI6, the IRA and the Mafia.

Welsh born Marks began small scale dealing of hashish in the late 1960s while at Oxford University studying nuclear physics and, later, a postgraduate degree course in philosophy.

At one time he claims to have had 25 such companies, 89 phone lines and 43 aliases, including the name used for the title of this book, Mr Nice, an alias he adopted after buying a passport from a convicted murderer of that name.

He was eventually caught again, this time by the American DEA, and sentenced to life in prison at Terre Haute federal penitentiary in Indiana.

[3][4] The book was adapted into a film Mr Nice in 2010, directed by Bernard Rose and starring Rhys Ifans and Chloë Sevigny.