At a July 17, 2003 press conference held jointly with Prime Minister Tony Blair, President George W. Bush described the prisoners held in Guantanamo: The only thing I know for certain is that these are bad people. They are, supposedly, the worst of the worst of the world's terrorists. Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith is one of the few people in the world who has had independent access to the prisoners at Guantanamo, representing more than fifty. Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side is his remarkable account of his descent into the darkly comic world of Guantanamo, a legal black hole in which the bleakness of the surroundings are punctuated by moments of humor and absurdity. From the absence of security at the airport, to the army protecting iguanas on the roads, Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side goes beyond the headlines to tell the true story of life at Guantanamo. By bearing witness to the prisoner's stories, Smith also asks what is done to our understanding of American democracy when the rule of law is jettisoned in the name of combating terrorism.

After graduating from Columbia Law School in New York, Clive spent nine years as a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights working on death penalty cases and other civil rights issues. In 1993, he moved to New Orleans and launched the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, a non-profit law office specializing in the defense of death penalty cases for impoverished defendants. In 1999 Clive Stafford Smith founded Reprieve and, the following year, he was awarded an OBE for 'humanitarian services'. He moved back to the UK in 2004 where he is focusing on achieving due process for the detainees being held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay, as well as continuing his work on death penalty cases. Clive was made a Rowntree Visionary and Echoing Green Fellow in 2005. A duel citizen, he lives in London.