“Books represent a lifeline behind bars, a way of nourishing the mind and filling the many hours that prisoners spend locked in their cells.” This was the main thrust of the letter that more than 80 prominent members of the British literary establishment sent to justice secretary Chris Grayling last month, expressing their disagreement with the newly enforced ban on family members and friends sending books to prisoners. The campaign against the measure continues to gain momentum, as was made clear again recently at the London Book Fair. At the invitation of English PEN and the Howard League, leading writers set out, in a set of postcards to be sent to Grayling, which books they would send prisoners and why. Here are some of the choices:
Martin Amis:
I would recommend Primo Levi’s If This is a Man. It is a masterly evocation of something much worse than prison: murderous enslavement for the crime of being born.
Jim Crace:
I’d send the Prison Trilogy by Pramoedya Ananta Toer – written in the head and remembered while on Buru prison island, but denied pen, paper and books.
Carol Ann Duffy:
I would send Jimmy Boyle’s visceral autobiography, A Sense of Freedom. It describes his journey from a violent, criminal youth to the degradation, shame and remorse he experienced in Scotland’s most draconian prisons – and the redemption eventually delivered by literature and art in the special unit at Barlinnie. It is a book everyone concerned with this current debate should read when the most wretched of our fellow citizens, who have nothing, are now being told they have less than nothing.
Tracy Chevalier:
I would recommend giving prisoners Touching the Void by Joe Simpson. It’s a true account of a disastrous climb in the South American Andes in which the two climbers face terrible choices, hit rock bottom, facing death, yet manage to survive. I can imagine prisoners would find a lot to relate to in the story of finding a way up and out from the worst moment of your life.
Hermione Lee:
The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad. Because it shows the danger and treachery and fear in English public life.
Ian McEwan:
The Grass Arena by John Healy. It’s a long and brilliant postcard from hell. A brutal childhood, alcoholism, a London underworld – this is what it’s like to touch bottom, then find your way up through the game of chess.
Martin Rowson:
50 Shades of Grayling – I presume the Lord Chancellor appreciates bondage.
Elif Shafak:
My Books for Prisoners recommendation would be Rumi’s Masnavi, composed of six books of poetry.
The style is extraordinary, interwoven with stories within stories. The themes Rumi deals with (death, body, love, birth, beauty) are both universal and timeless. His peaceful voice speaks to our hearts and minds across all national and religious borders, and challenges head-on the teachings that promote bigotry, xenophobia and discrimination.
Which books would you send a prisoner and why do you think your choice would help them? Here is a selection of readers’ suggestions. And you can read our piece with four direct experiences sourced from our readers here.
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson because it is very funny and I think prisoners need to read something to make them laugh and forget the prison bars.
The shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, the writing is so amazing and the story is so entertained that it would help them get out of prision for a while, even if its just in their minds.
I'm not sure anyone in prison will want to read about people worse off than they are, so I think a lot of the books recommended by writers in the article may not be welcomed. I reckon you'd want something distracting and interesting. The most recent thing I've read that was funny and interesting and unputdownable was Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway, so I'd send that.
I think it would have to be Gibbings's Malice in Blunderland, as I don't think a funnier book exists, but also because Gibbings himself learned to read and write in prison. I can think of no better example of making the system make you something.
When I was inside I read (amongst others) The Count of Monte Cristo. Over one-thousand words of pure escapism. And of course, there's a prison break too.
I'd send a book of great travel writing, perhaps Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts, or Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, writing that can take you out of your current circumstances and let your mind roam free.
Well, during my - ahem - tenure, i read a few of the above.
What cons want more than anything is a book that lets your mind escape.
The most popular i found, were fantasy, Grisham, King, Pratchett.
Also, the hard men and gangster books books were always floating about.
I was lucky to discover Elmore Leonard quite by chance. I picked up Unknown Man Number 89 from a shelf, read the first paragraph, and have been reading him ever since.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
Pure entertainment, plus he escapes!!
Mailer's "The Armies of the Night" does a great job of conveying the sheer banality of prison, though upon reflection, I'm not sure I would have cared for that one at the time.
I'd be tempted to send them 'How to break out of prison' by John Wareham, just to put a smile on their faces - but if the task is not just to amuse but also to stir their imagination and perhaps encourage them to seek further sources of inspiration, then I'd provide a copy of "The Master and Margarita " by Mikhail Bulgakov, with its brilliant study of the duality of light and dark, and good and evil.
I have sent dictionaries, tide tables, almanacs, very thick novels: anything the prison library service was unable or unwilling to supply. I worry what my reciepient and his 85,000 fellow inmates will do without friends like me. Very shortsighted.
How to survive the worst prison experience is good reading for those doing time!. So it has to be Jack London's The Star Rover, sometimes called the Jacket. This masterwork where punishment involves being locked in the frightening jacket, a product of San Francisco's penitentiary system. Of course there is a way out and therein lies the salutary lesson of this poem to humankind .
You would need something to take you away. Probably something that would do so readily: prisons are not the quietest & most restful places, so it might be hard to concentrate and make your mental escape through dense prose or poetry.
So, something that combines a large canvas with accessibility. Depending on taste writers like Dickens and Stephen King would qualify in that respect. The wide & wild landscapes of SF and fantasy would work: Iain M Banks & George RR Martin might be your travel guides there.
Then there's comedy. Terry Pratchett and Wodehouse, Christopher Moore and Tom Sharpe could provide much needed laughter and (more than a whiff of) welcome anarchy.
Reminded by some of these comments of the books I read when I've been in the cells: Solitude by Anthony Storr - not a bad book, but a fucking terrible, completely idiotic choice in the circumstances, just not a subject you want to think about or focus on at all; The Satanic Verses - great book and a great choice, such rich and engaging writing, completely captivating and diverting; and (one I mentioned above) States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering by Stanley Cohen. Quite a weird experience to read accounts of (among many other things) severe abuse of prisoners while myself in custody, but an absolutely fascinating book, incredibly intellectually stimulating, as well as deeply humanistic and beautifully written. I won't say the hours flew by, but it helped loads.
Poems from Prison. (1968) by Etheridge Knight. He wrote these poems while an inmate at Indiana State Prison. To read some of his work check out this link: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/etheridge-knight#about
I can't relate physically or emotionally to inmates, but Mr. Knight did. Knowing your feelings aren't wrong is a universal need that everyone deserves: even those who did or do wrong acts.
When Mandela was in prison they smuggled the Complete Works of Shakespeare onto Robbin Island. Each of the ANC prisoners had it in turn and each chose a favorite play and quote. Mandela chose 'Julius Caesar' ("Fine, you've seized power now what do you do next?") and his favorite quote - "The coward dies many a death - the brave man dies but once."
There is also a brilliant film by the Taviani Brothers of 'Julius Caesar' performed by (mostly Mafia) inmates in Italy's highest security prison.
And I taught a course on 'Hamlet' inside Wormwood Scrubs for many years and it was so popular that we had to restrict the numbers to ten. The line "Denmark is a prison" struck many chords.
@GuardianBooks Shantaram. Inspirational. Written by & about an escaped Australian prisoner turned accidental medicine man in a Mumbai slum.
— Marian Kennedy (@Mariankennedy0) April 14, 2014
@GuardianBooks I used to teach in a high security prison and they loved Othello - all about misguided decisions so it seemed apt
— sandrareston (@sandrareston) April 14, 2014
@GuardianBooks I'd give a prisoner Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and the works of Epicurus. I think they both understood how to endure.
— ________ (@nomeapropriado) April 14, 2014
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson...
for very similar reasons to Tracy Chevalier, this book demonstrates how you can rise above the circumstances you were born into or find yourself in without any new age, self help or preachy nonsense.