' The sun is shining through the bars of my window on what must be a glorious summer day. I've been incarcerated in a cell five paces by three for twelve & a half hours & will not be let out again until midday; eighteen & a half hours of solitary confinement. There is a child of seventeen in the cell below me who has been charged with shoplifting
- his first offence not even convicted
- & he is being locked up for eighteen & a half hours unable to speak to anyone. This is Great Britain in the twenty-first century not Turkey not Nigeria not Kosovo but Britain.' On Thursday 19 July 2001 after a perjury trial lasting seven weeks Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in jail. He was to spend the first twenty-two days & fourteen hours in HMP Belmarsh a double A-Category high-security prison in South London which houses some of Britain's most violent criminals. This is the author's daily record of the time he spent there.

...

On 9th August 2001 twenty-two days after Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury he was transferred from HMP Belmarsh a double-A Category high-security prison in south London to HMP Wayland a Category C establishment in Norfolk. He served sixty-seven days in Wayland & during that time as this account testifies encountered not only the daily degradations of a dangerously over-stretched prison service but the spirit & courage of his fellow inmates... Praise for Prison Diary 1
- Belmarsh: Hell": ' The finest thing that Jeffrey Archer has ever written'
- " Independent on Sunday". ' Compelling reportage.. . Jeffrey Archer raises these diaries to the standards of a prison Pepys by being such an assiduous recorder of fellow inmates' secrets'
- Jonathan Aitken " Mail on Sunday"."


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Day 115 Saturday 10th November 2001 6.38am It's all an act. I am hopelessly unhappy dejected & broken. I smile when I am at my lowest I laugh when I see no humour I help others when I need help myself. I am alone. If I were to show any sign even for a moment of what I'm going through I would have to read the details in some tabloid the following day. Everything I do is only a phone call away from a friendly journalist with an open cheque book. I don't know where I have found the strength to maintain this facade & never break down in anyone's presence. The final volume of Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries covers the period of his transfer from Wayland to his eventual release on parole in July 2003. It

Includes:: a shocking account of the traumatic time he spent in the notorious Lincoln jail & the events that led to his incarceration there -- it also throws light on a system that is close to breaking point. Told with humour compassion & honesty it closes with a thought-provoking manifesto that should be applauded by the Establishment & prison population alike.

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Danny Cartwright & Spencer Craig were born on different sides of the track. Danny an East End Cockney leaves Clement Attlee Comprehensive School at the age of 15 to take up a job at a local garage. He falls in love with Beth the bosss daughter & asks her to marry him. Spencer Craig resides in the West End. A graduate of an English public school & Cambridge University. After leaving university he becomes a criminal barrister & is soon tipped to be the youngest Queens Counsel of his generation. Danny & Beth travel up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. They end the evening in a wine bar where Spencer Craig is also celebrating
- his 30th birthday along with a select group of university chums. Although the two young men dont meet their lives will never be the same again. For an hour later one of them is arrested for murder while the other ends up as the Prosecutions chief witness in an Old Bailey trial.
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When notorious gangster Fat Sam Mahood is murdered the chief suspect is arrested nearby. But he seems to have suffered a breakdown. Incarcerated in a mental institution hes known only as the Man in the White Suit. The suspect remains an enigma until Nurse Brenda calls on Mystery Man former patient & owner of No Alibis Belfasts finest mystery bookshop to bring his powers of investigation to bear... However before our hero can even begin the Man in the White Suit is arrested for the murder of a fellow patient. But is he a double murderer or a helpless scapegoat? Intrigue conspiracy & ancient Latin curses all combine to give the Small Bookseller with No Name his most difficult case to date. ...

The third in the cycle of novels that began with THE SHADOW OF THE WIND & THE ANGELS GAME. THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN returns to the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books & the Sempere & Sons bookshop. It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957 one year after Daniel & Bea from THE SHADOW OF THE WIND have married. They now have a son Julian & are living with Daniels father at Sempere & Sons. Fermin still works with them & is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year. However something appears to be bothering him. Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters. He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet a beautiful & unique illustrated edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books he wants to buy this expensive edition. Then to Daniels surprise the man inscribes the book with the words To Fermin Romero de Torres who came back from the dead & who holds the key to the future. This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment betrayal & the return of a deadly rival. ...

THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN returns to the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books & the Sempere & Sons bookshop. It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957 one year after Daniel & Bea from THE SHADOW OF THE WIND have married. They now have a son Julian & are living with Daniels father at Sempere & Sons. Fermin still works with them & is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year. However something appears to be bothering him. Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters. He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet a beautiful & unique illustrated edition of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books he wants to buy this expensive edition. Then to Daniels surprise the man inscribes the book with the words To Fermin Romero de Torres who came back from the dead & who holds the key to the future. This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment betrayal & the return of a deadly rival... ...

The third in the cycle of novels that began with THE SHADOW OF THE WIND & THE ANGELS GAME. THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN returns to the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books & the Sempere & Sons bookshop. It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957 one year after Daniel & Bea from THE SHADOW OF THE WIND have married. They now have a son Julian & are living with Daniels father at Sempere & Sons. Fermin still works with them & is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year. However something appears to be bothering him. Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters. He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet a beautiful & unique illustrated edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books he wants to buy this expensive edition. Then to Daniels surprise the man inscribes the book with the words To Fermin Romero de Torres who came back from the dead & who holds the key to the future. This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment betrayal & the return of a deadly rival. ...

THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN returns to the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books & the Sempere & Sons bookshop. It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957 one year after Daniel & Bea from THE SHADOW OF THE WIND have married. They now have a son Julian & are living with Daniels father at Sempere & Sons. Fermin still works with them & is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year. However something appears to be bothering him. Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters. He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet a beautiful & unique illustrated edition of HE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books he wants to buy this expensive edition. Then to Daniels surprise the man inscribes the book with the words To Fermin Romero de Torres who came back from the dead & who holds the key to the future. This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment betrayal & the return of a deadly rival.. . ...

The Prisoner of Heaven returns to the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books & the Sempere & Sons bookshop. It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957 one year after Daniel & Bea from The Shadow of the Wind have married. They now have a son Julian & are living with Daniel's father at Sempere & Sons. Fermin still works with them & is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year. However something appears to be bothering him. Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters. He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet a beautiful & unique illustrated edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books he wants to buy this expensive edition. Then to Daniel's surprise the man inscribes the book with the words ' To Fermin Romero de Torres who came back from the dead & who holds the key to the future'. This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment betrayal & the return of a deadly rival... ...