Part one Spring 2020. The streets were quiet and empty. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, not even a single line of vapour trail spoiled the perfectly clear blue. My children were playing happily in the back garden and enjoying the unseasonably warm spring sunshine. Thankfully, the weather had been kind and we had the space for them to let off steam. With the pandemic lockdown in full force, my wife and I decided to try ou...

August 2015 < Michael Dolan arrived at my cell door last night. Dolan is or was an infamous London gangster. He was also the psychotic ringleader of a gang of thugs here. He is what they call a ‘lifer,’ in for a string of violent offences in the 1990s, including prostitution, arson, extortion and murder, most notably the sadistic torture and killing of a gangland rival. The court case dominated the newspapers for weeks...

October 2015 < News travels quickly in this place, bad news I found out travels quicker. The whispers and furtive, sideways looks at breakfast time told me that there have been a development. I could imagine what was being said, if I were in their position I would probably be thinking the same. Of course, they left it to the king to deliver her decision. > *** “Well, the lady called,” Dolan said, standing in front o...

November 2015 < Incarceration. Whoever it was that first devised that word and its meaning, captured the cold isolation that exists inside this institution perfectly. Locked away from the world and loved ones, unable to do anything but wait. Even the most trivial of events, a walk in the park or a pint of beer in a pub garden, now seem so precious to me. Three weeks have passed since I saw the footage of the woman on t...

December 2015 < It was another sleepless night; I have got kind of used to the odd noises that resonate inside this old building. Not only the clicks and clangs from the ageing pipework, but the guys who shout out indecipherable nonsense in their sleep, fighting their own personal demons, but last night I had so much crammed inside my head that it was impossible to relax. It is two days before Christmas. The first, and...

June 2016 <Woke up early with this sickly feeling in the pit of my stomach. As I write this the sun is just breaking through, casting a golden glow onto the painted brickwork above the cell door, bringing a new day and what should be a new chance at life. This is the last morning that I will wake up in this godforsaken place. Over the course of the last eighteen months, I have gone over this moment so many times in my...