Canoe conman John Darwin's fantasy of future as bestselling author
CANOE conman John Darwin is still convinced he can make the fortune he always dreamt of... as a bestselling author.
The stony-broke fraudster, who faked his death in an insurance scam, is penning a second book about his time behind bars, despite his first being savaged.
He said: “When I was in prison I wrote a lot and I read Jeffrey Archer’s books and thought I could do better.
“I’m hoping to produce a sequel to my last book about life in prison. When you are inside there you see all sorts of things.”
I read Jeffrey Archer’s books and thought I could do better
Last year he published The Canoe Man: Panama And Back but it sold badly and one reviewer said: “I haven’t read such a badly written book before. It was awful.”
Yet Darwin, 62, plugs away, writing in The Canoe Bar of a beachside hotel in the resort of Seaton Carew, Teesside, where he staged his “drowning” 11 years ago and where he is still a celebrity.
Freed from jail in 2011 he now lives alone on benefits in the town, claiming he has cancer. His ex-wife Anne, 60, who also served time for the swindle refuses to see him.