For Billy Hayes 1970 was a horrifying year. It was the year when he tried to smuggle 4lbs of hashish from Istanbul back to his home in America. It was the year when he was arrested at Istanbul airport tried & sentenced to 30 years in a Turkish jail. For five years he suffered the filth brutality & degradation of imprisonment in an environment of hellish squalor while his family fought in vain to secure his release. Finally in desperation he made a daring escape bid & incredibly the bid succeeded. This is the astounding true story told in Billy Hayes's own words of those five years of living hell & of the harrowing ordeal of his time on the run. Vivid & realistic without being morbid it is a classic story of survival & human endurance told with humour intelligence & total honesty.