A Prison Diary, Volume II: Purgatory
by Jeffrey Archer
Pan, £6.99, pp. 310, ISBN 0330426370
A Prison Diary, Volume III: Heaven
by Jeffrey Archer
Macmillan, £18.99, pp. 478, ISBN 1405032626
In an extraordinary fax to the Director-General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, the Home Secretary David Blunkett set down his feelings in an unequivocally forthright manner:
I am sick and tired of reading Jeffrey Archer stories about the cushy conditions in which he was placed, the freedom he has been given, the opportunity to do anything he likes, and the snook he is cocking at all of us.
News had just reached him (via a highly coloured account in the Sun) that whilst out from North Sea Camp open prison on a community visit to see his wife, Archer had attended a luncheon party at Gillian Shephard’s home in Thetford. ‘I expect you to take immediate and decisive disciplinary action,’ Blunkett thundered on. Narey was ordered to ‘report personally to me’ once the turbulent prisoner had been effectively neutralised.
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