Gregory David Roberts

Gregory David Roberts is an Australian writer who is best known for the novel Shantaram. Roberts, born in June 1952, overcame a debilitating heroin addiction and crime life to engineer a successful writing career that is to a large extent a chronicle of his earlier struggles. Roberts became a heroin addict leading to a strain in his marriage that ended in divorce and the loss of custody of his daughter. In order to finance his drug habit, Roberts turned to crime and was sentenced to 19 years for bank robbery but he made a famous day time escape from Pentridge Prison after serving just two years. After evading capture for ten years he was rearrested on a drug trafficking run in Frankfurt in 1990, spending a further 6 years in prison. He published his first novel “Shantaram” after leaving prison. The book was extremely well received and Roberts sold the rights for a potential film for $2 million.