Nightmare in Jamaica

Tommy Kennedy IV's extraordinary life began against the backdrop of the northern town of Warrington. In this honest autobiography, Tommy describes a chaotic childhood where home is variously in a caravan, a convent and care homes. His parents are childlike and irresponsible, and his life is unpredictable and unstable. Without any parental guidance, by the age of 22, Tommy had completed seven custodial sentences. Within this environment, Tommy learns how to survive and thrive in a world of petty crime, scams and horrific risk-taking behaviour. He escapes Warrington by bursting into an intoxicating world of plane hopping, class A drugs, glamorous women, 5-star hotels and exotic locations. The rollercoaster then stops abruptly in a long prison sentence in the notorious General Penitentiary of Jamaica, where life becomes a daily struggle amongst murders and rapists. Here, Tommy finally reflects on his life, and a descent into darkness reveals the truth of what he has been running away from. A picture emerges of a shattered past and an understanding of raw fear; a fear arising not from the wooden batons brandished indiscriminately by the sadistic guards, but from an inner world where demons were residing in the recesses of his mind. A chance meeting with a remarkable woman enables Tommy to begin his transformation and he takes his first tentative steps into a new more spiritually enlightened direction. "Raw, harrowing, but ultimately uplifting" Mandasue Heller