Shereen: fascinating chat
Post categories: Shereen
| 08:44 UK time, Thursday, 26 January 2012
For this Sunday's show I've had a fascinating chat with a Scot by the name of Gary Mulgrew. You may remember him as a member of "", the millionaire bankers who ended up in a US jail after a high profile extradition case.
Having served his time for fraud he's now written a book about his experiences in a tough gang-dominated prison in Texas.
Gary also describes his difficult childhood, spending two years in Quarriers Children's Ö÷²¥´óÐãs and then growing up among the gangs, muggings, and "chibbings" of Pollok in Glasgow. He observes, wryly, that it was all good training for what was to come later in his life. Getting a job in a bank was a great source of pride to his family since many of his peers ended up in jail. The irony is not lost on him.
There are many shocking, poignant, and even comical moments, but Gary is not about self-justification, in fact he comes across as someone who's done a lot of hard self reflection and who is very honest about what he's found.
His motivation for writing the book isn't what you might expect. It's not money: he's donating 60% of the proceeds to a children's charity. The real reason, he says, is his daughter Cara, who he hasn't seen since his ex-wife and her new partner took her abroad a few years ago. Gary doesn't know where they are but he hopes the book might help him find her. He's determined that she will one day have a record of what happened to her father and know that he didn't abandon her.
Tune in on Sunday to hear more. Don't forget the longer version is on the website. My studio panel this week will be Severin Carrell, Robert Dawson Scott, and Lucy Adams who're ready to get stuck in to all the week's big talking points. See you then.
Comment number 1.
At 26th Jan 2012, minuend wrote:Can you explain why your show is being retained, that appeals only to the lowest common denominator, whilst the excellent Newsweek hosted by Derek Bateman is being axed?
Is there a reason or an excuse for that?
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