Deadly Encounters - The Author Recounts His Association with the Underworld (Paperback)

The story is centered around the author's Borderline Personality Disorder, its link to his criminal past and how before learning of his condition, it led him into all kinds of dangerous, bizarre and devastating situations. He tried to escape incarceration in both the physical and psychological through writing. He used it as therapy to ease his anxiety while serving time in prison where he documented the lives of life sentence prisoners which 17 years on is now being used in academic papers. After he was released from prison, he used his insight to write about the Newcastle underworld rubbing shoulders with some of the North East's most notorious gangsters. But he was drawn deeper into the murky life around guns, drug dealers and prostitution. And as his dark past bled into the present, so did unresolved traumas that echoed the chaos around him, which finally engulfed him. The allure of the nightlife, pubs and involvement with the Newcastle underworld, sent him spiraling into a meltdown that almost cost him his freedom again. He escaped imprisonment by the skin of his teeth and returned to Teesside where he later graduated with a degree in criminology and a masters in social research methods. During his student years he continued to battle his drink problem fuelled by his condition. He struggled to get employment due to his criminal record and haywire behaviour. He continues to this day managing his BPD while striving for a better life as a writer and academic.