A Prayer Before Dawn

Now a major motion picture! The true story of Billy Moore’s struggle to survive in Thailand’s notorious “Bangkok Hilton” prison. “Has heartfelt elements of self-betterment, vulnerability, and moments of strength that gave his character depth and a believable connection with the reader." —JetLi.com

The first time Billy Moore walked into his cell packed with seventy prisoners, the floor resembled a mass grave, with intertwined arms and legs, and the smell of human feces was so strong he almost vomited. That night, he slept next to a dead man. It wouldn’t be the last time.

Behind the walls of Klong Prem “Bangkok Hilton” prison, life has no value. Overcrowded cells are a breeding ground for HIV, TB, dengue fever, and hepatitis, and the conditions are putrid and brutal. In an environment where drugs, murder, rape, and corruption run rampant, Moore fights to stay afloat above madness and his inner demons.

A few years before, Moore had traveled to Thailand to escape a life of heroin addiction and alcoholism in England. In an attempt to stay straight, he became a professional Muay Thai boxer, worked as an extra in Rambo alongside Sylvester Stallone, and even fell in love. However, in the poverty-stricken back streets of Chiang Mai, Moore’s life quickly descended back into chaos when he relapsed after trying ya ba, the deadly crack cocaine of Southeast Asia.

Moore was imprisoned first in Chiang Mai Central Prison and later in Klong Prem prison, a hellhole of filth and horror that very few will ever experience and none would want to see again.

As a “farang” (foreigner), Moore struggles to survive the prison’s atrocities by making strategic friends, fighting in the prison’s Muay Thai boxing team, and even converting to Islam and praying five times a day. However, what requires more stamina and grit than any of his boxing matches is not just dealing with dangerous Thai criminals that lurk behind prison walls, but also resisting his addictions in an environment where drugs run plenty and wrestling with guilt.

A Prayer Before Dawn is no ordinary prison memoir; it’s the story of one man’s survival amid inhumane circumstances and, most importantly, his redemption in the most unlikely of places.

Billy Moore was formerly a Muay Thai boxer in Thailand. After a run with drugs, he was imprisoned in Chiang Mai Central Prison and later transferred to the notorious Klong Prem “Bankok Hilton” prison. He was repatriated to England in 2010. He owes his recovery in part to the charity Prisoners Abroad and Narcotics Anonymous. Moore lives in Liverpool, England.

"A relentlessly active account of a Liverpool man’s experiences in Thailand’s underworld of kick-boxing, drug dealing and prison. It’s like having your head kicked in, ceaselessly, from every direction, which is exactly what this man’s life was like. Surrounded by characters in various stages of self-delusion, he tells his story without any self pity, without any sentimentality, acknowledging that all the choices were his. . . . You don’t often come across someone who has met Sylvester Stallone and lived like Rambo."
—Nerve

"Much more than just another sorry tale of misdirection or a series of bad decisions in a foreign land. A Prayer Before Dawn [has] heartfelt elements of self-betterment, vulnerability, and moments of strength that gave his character depth and a believable connection with the reader."
—JetLi.com