LIFER

Hardback. First published in the USA as 'Man Alone'. This is a first-hand account of the experiences of a man serving a life sentence in one of America's toughest jails. To those who only know of American prisons from the outside, it is a shocking book in the raw picture it gives of man's inhumanity. But there is much here that applies to prison life anywhere, for when a man is sentenced for 20yrs he can only survive by accepting, in part at least, the strange codes of that world. In Doyle's account of work in the Stone Yard, with the heat 115 degrees in the shade, in the stories he tells of escapes and attempted escapes, and in his description of a general mutiny and of the measures taken to suppress it, he creates unforgettably for the reader what a prisoner really feels. Billy Doyle was a strong man. He had to be to stand up to 19 days, naked, in "the hole", breaking the ice in his water bucket, and without a mattress to sleep on; he lost 18lbs in as many days, but the marks on his mind were the longest healing. The book gives a vivid picture of the lives of those "inside", with a salutary, if painful, reminder of the problems inevitably connected with any prison system. 238pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With previous owner's name and address insc., lightly browned edges o/w Vg. in sl. frayed Vg. dw.