“Those of you who have read Marching Powder or who have a fascination with South America simply can’t miss this event,” she said. Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival Director Tanya Perdue encouraged the community to come along to meet Rusty as he reveals the stories behind his latest gripping book. Colombiano is due to be released at the end of July and Rusty Young will join us here at the Margaret River Cultural Centre to talk about his writing and his latest book. He vowed to one day turn their tales into a book and let their voices be heard. During this time he was both shocked and touched by the stories of child soldiers he encountered.

For seven years Rusty Young lived and worked in Colombia, interviewing special forces soldiers, snipers, undercover intelligence agents and members of two vicious terrorist organisations – the FARC and Autodefensas. After a visit to the notorious San Pedro Prison where he met and befriended the charismatic drug-smuggler Thomas McFadden, he remained in Bolivia to write Thomas’ story – a book that became the worldwide bestseller Marching Powder.īlending fact and fiction, Rusty Young’s second book Colombiano takes us on a heart-thumping journey into the violent and unpredictable world of post-Escobar Colombia. When law-graduate Rusty Young was backpacking through South America, fate drew him to Bolivia. Written by lawyer Rusty Young, Marching Powder - sometimes shocking, sometimes funny - is a riveting story of survival.Rusty Young, author of the international bestselling book Marching Powder, is set to visit Margaret River to talk about his latest book Colombiano as an out-of-season fundraising event for the Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival, to be held at the Cultural Centre on Wednesday 9 August at 6.30pm. When he was told that for a bribe of $5000 his sentence could be overturned, it was the many backpackers who'd passed through who sent him the money. Thomas ended up making a living by giving backpackers tours of the prison - he became a fixture on the backpacking circuit and was named in the Lonely Planet guide to Bolivia. Prisoners have to pay an entrance fee and buy their own cells (the alternative is to sleep outside and die of exposure), prisoners' wives and children often live inside too, high quality cocaine is manufactured and sold from the prison. Thomas found himself in a bizarre world, the prison reflecting all that is wrong with South American society.

Marching Powder is the story of how he navigated this dark world of gangs, drugs and corruption to come out on top. Small-time drug smuggler Thomas McFadden found himself on the inside. San Pedro is Bolivia's most notorious prison.

Rusty marching powder