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A darkly comic, sometimes shocking account of life in the world's most bizarre prison

When Thomas McFadden was arrested trying to smuggle five kilos of cocaine out of Bolivia, he was flung into the infamous San Pedro prison – the strangest penitentiary system in the world. A bemused Englishman abroad, Thomas was astonished to discover that corrupt politicians and major-league drug smugglers lived in luxury apartments in one wing while the poorer sections of the prison were too dangerous to enter after dark. Prisoners had to pay for everything: their cells, their food and their clothing, not to mention the many bribes required by the police. To survive in San Pedro you needed an income – and prisoners turned to the trade they knew best, manufacturing cocaine. Even the prison cat was addicted to crack.

Initially mistaken for a hated American, Thomas survived numerous attempts on his life as he tried to adjust. In Marching Powder Thomas describes his journey from despised gringo to San Pedro's most famous inmate when – after spells as a drug dealer, shopkeeper and Mormon pastor – he hit upon the idea of giving guided tours of the prison. He became legendary on the South American backpacking circuit and, for the tourists passing through, meeting Thomas was an unforgettable experience. Only Thomas knew that behind the show he put on was a much darker reality, where brutality and death were common currency, and sometimes even the strongest did not survive.

'All the staples of the prison memoir are here; sadistic guards, an attempted break-out, the terrors of solitary confinement, the joys of freedom . . . The result is a truly gripping piece of testimony' Sunday Telegraph