'A memoir to shine a light in the darkest of nights . . . a story of redemption' – journalist Tony Parsons.
Michael Maisey was excited the day he was locked up in the notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institute. He was going to be a legend to all his mates. The sixteen year old was in for attempted murder. He was innocent of this particular crime but amongst the violent and dangerous young men on his wing he was about to learn exactly how far he'd go to survive.
In Young Offender we see what turned a good kid into a wanted criminal. Abused by his uncle, bullied at school, at the age of twelve he found the safety he craved in the ranks of a local gang in West London. He graduated from shoplifting to armed robbery and for five years Michael was in and out of Feltham, on a downward spiral of crime and drug and alcohol addiction. At rock bottom, he began attending AA meetings. But the road to recovery would mean changing himself in the deepest possible ways. Could Michael finally learn what it meant to be a good man?
Honest and inspiring, this is a powerful story of redemption. Today Michael is a successful businessman and a loving father who spends time helping others find their way.
'Courageous and brutally honest' – Ollie Ollerton, ex-Special Forces soldier, author of Break Point. Michael Maisey was born and raised in Isleworth and became one of London's most prolific young lawbreakers. He spent most of his teenage years in Feltham Young Offenders Institute after a raid on his local corner shop goes wrong. Twenty years after the armed robbery that changed his life, he is now sober, the proud father of three daughters and the founder of a non profit organisation called The CIP Project a peer led community support group which helps people with mental health, addiction, PTSD and childhood trauma. He was recently honoured by the London Borough of Hounslow for his services to the community. Young Offender is his first book. From shy, abused child to one of London's most wanted teenage armed robbers, this is the extraordinary story of one man's fight to leave his criminal past behind.
