Purgatory: A Prison Diary Volume 2 (Prison Diaries)

By Jeffrey Archer

Book Overview

On July 19, 2001, following a conviction for perjury, international bestselling author Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison. Prisoner FF8282, as Archer is now known, spent the first three weeks in the notorious HMP Belmarsh, a high-security prison in South London, home to murderers, terrorists and some of Britain's most violent criminals. On the last day of the trial, his mother dies, and the world's press accompany him to the funeral. On returning to prison, he's placed on the lifer's wing, where a cellmate sells his story to the tabloids. Prisoners and guards routinely line up outside his cell to ask for his autograph, to write letters, and to seek advice on their appeals. For twenty-two days, Archer was locked in a cell with a murderer and a drug baron. He decided to use that time to write an hour-by-hour diary, detailing the worst three weeks of his life. When "A Prison Diary" was published in England, it was condemned by the prison authorities, and praised by the critics.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312330987
• ISBN13: 9780312330989
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Prison Diary 2

Excellent read.Gives one quite an insight into what happens inside the prison system Loryn Potroz

A charmed life?

As compelling a read as Volume I. He is now in Category C Wayland prison, which, though still full of any number of restraints, is far more relaxed than Belmarsh. Even so there are murderers and some real thugs among the inmates. Against the latter he was protected by two stalwart prisoners without whom he hardly ever went into the exercise area. As in Belmarsh, it is astonishing how much help he got from a number of his...

Easy Read, Insightful

I have to disagree with some of the other reviews. I find this book very easy to read, not boring at all. I could not put it down. I'm no big fan of Jeffrey Archer, but this Second Book does go into more of the dark side of British Jails and Prisons. The drugs, the violence.... the way the inmates stick together, swapping Mar's bars for Phone Cards.. Very good.