AUDIENCES are guaranteed to be entertained by the life story of one of the most prolific drugs barons of all time when he visits Weston next month.

Howard Marks had up to 43 different aliases but became known to millions around the world by one name: Mr Nice.

His notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler came from him masterminding the movement of shipments of the drug worth at least £50,000.

He was connected with organisations as diverse as the CIA, MI6, the IRA and the Mafia, eventually being convicted by the American Drug Enforcement Administration and was handed a 25-year sentence, of which he served seven years.

Following his release from prison in 1995, Howard penned his life story in the autobiography, Mr. Nice, which remains an international best seller in several languages and was the best-selling non-fiction book of 1997.

Mr Nice, a film starring Rhys Ifans, was also made about his life and became a cinema box office smash in 2011.

If you have read the book and seen the film, now this is your chance to meet the controversial legend himself as he brings his critically acclaimed one-man show, An Audience with Mr Nice, to the Winter Gardens on December 22 at 8pm.

Hear first-hand how Howard was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (M16), because of his connections in the hashish-producing countries of Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan, for his ability to seduce women, and for his contacts with the IRA.

Mr Nice is selling out venues UK-wide with his spellbinding and hilarious life story in a show which draws on a wealth of experience, ranging from growing up in South Wales, his time at Oxford University to incarceration at America's toughest federal prison.

Tickets cost £15 and are available from the box office on 01934-645544. For more information, visit www.thewintergardens.com