When he was once again picked up by the police, he spent several months in Bombay's Arthur Road prison. He became a member of the Bombay mafia, then worked as a smug-gler and fighter during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. There, knowing little more than basic first aid, he set up one of the city's first crude medical clinics. He spent ten years as a fugitive in Australia, and ended up in Bombay, India. After a minor rules infraction got him sentenced to a unit where he was subjected to regular beatings, Roberts staged a daring daylight escape-perhaps more amazingly, a successful one. His relaxed, soft-spoken manner during holdups earned him the nickname the "Gentleman Bandit." Still, a bandit he was, and he was eventually captured and sentenced to ten years in prison. To support his drug habit, Roberts turned, as many do, to crime. Shortly thereafter, "a social worker friend introduced Roberts to heroin it turned out to be not so much a gateway drug as a trapdoor-the start of a 20-year fall through the underworlds of several continents," commented Peter Murphy in an interview with Roberts on the Laura Hird Web site.
His relentless drive destroyed his marriage, however, and his wife won custody of their daughter. Working in a factory during the day and studying at night, as well as being involved in social activism and anti-war protests, Roberts was viewed as on his way to becoming one of the country's youngest tenured literature and philosophy professors. In the mid-1970s, Roberts had started a promising career as an academic in Australia after coming in first in his exams in Victoria. SIDELIGHTS: The personal history of Australian author Gregory David Roberts reveals a life of drugs, crime, violence, and, ultimately, redemption. WORK IN PROGRESS: Three new novels, including The Mountain Shadow, the sequel to Shantaram. Shantaram (novel), Scribe Publications (Carlton North, Victoria, Australia), 2003.Ĭontributor of short stories, under a pseudonym, to India's national newspaper. Has supported himself previously as a criminal and member of the Bombay mafia worked variously as a factory employee, social activist, founder of a first-aid and diagnostic clinic in Bombay, India, literacy teacher in prison, front man for a rock band, cosmology teacher, and stunt man and actor in Bollywood movies. Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, columnist founder and owner of a multimedia company in Australia. Education: Attended University of Melbourne.ĪDDRESSES: Agent-c/o Author Mail, Scribe Publications, 595 Drummond St., Carlton North, Victoria 3054, Australia.ĬAREER: Writer, columnist, and business owner. PERSONAL: Born 1952, in Melbourne, Australia divorced children: one daughter.
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