Highpoint (HMP)

[Laz Farrell]

The first thing I was taught on that first terrifying night was how to make a homemade shank by melting a razor blade onto the end of a toothbrush all I ended up cutting was myself as I forgot to cover the blade when I concealed it in my uniform. Luckily I never had the need for it as I was in with the right crowd which was even more valuable in here than in the outside world, I also learnt that Cigarettes really were used as currency and desperate People will pay pound ten pounds for a can of beer when it was smuggled in from by those who had been on weekend release. The Highpoint was when I got re acquainted with the joys of a libarary, well it was one of the class rooms that had been converted to a library but it had a several hundred books nothing sexy or to rebellious to give the inmates any ideas of course but it was filled with many classics, names I was familiar with but never read, Dickens, Hemmingway, Shakespeare, Steinbeck but no Stephen King which at the time made my heart sink.

The first book that got me through those tough early days and the long nights was Treasure Island it became very surreal as one of the three guys I shared the cell with smoked some awful cack at every lock in and the fumes that initially made me retch helped transport me to  the Caribbean. I had a flick through them all and finished several but still wish I had met these greats at an earlier age or in another place as sadly I don’t think I can ever read them again without the painfull memories of where I first encountered them, but on a positive note in my new life I do encourage others to do so.

[Sandra Davies]

I don't have a clue whether this is one of your 'personal experiences' or not and in some ways don't care because this had an energy and a reality which makes that unimportant.

And what you say about wishing certain books had been available to be read at other times - that seems to be a familiar cry, for all sorts of reasons.