The Attraction of Cuba

Chris Hilton went to Havana in the early 2000s to escape the drudgery of life in England―and found himself mixed up with a variety of gangland chancers, all living on the edge of legality.

There was always the risk of their moneymaking schemes getting rumbled by the police but that’s what made it so compelling. And then there was Jamilia―a refugee from rural poverty, who’d come to the big city as a teenager, and been rescued from the streets by a terrifying family of small-time criminals.

“A little crazy is good,” Jamilia tells Chris― and a little crazy they become, living hard, loving hard and downing a deal of Cuban rum.

But how long can craziness last? And what happens when you need to escape from escapism?