Forgive and Forget?

Gregory David Roberts, author of the best-selling novel Shantaram, is back in Melbourne speaking to a conference of English teachers. Roberts was originally named Gregory Peter John Smith, under which name he robbed a number of building societies and other Melbourne city businesses at gun-point in 1977-78: a good friend of mine worked at one of them. According to "The Age" today, the rights to his novel have been bought by Johnny Depp and Roberts is now working on the screenplay.