Mark Leech. A PRODUCT OF THE SYSTEM (Victor Gollancz, #6.99).
* EACH narrow cell in which we dwell/ Is a foul and dark latrine/ And
the fetid breath of living death/ Chokes up each grated screen/ And all
but lust is turned to dust/ Inside Humanity's Machine. Such was Oscar
Wilde's description of prison life in The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and if
Mark Leech's account of life inside is anything to go by, that machine
is badly in need of an overhaul.
A school-of-hard-knocks autobiography that charts Leech's downward
spiral from abuse victim to Borstal boy, recidivist con, and unlikely
jailbird celebrity, A Product of the System is a holiday-in-hell guide
to the penal system from one of its most experienced visitors; a
provocative, enlightened, and whine-free look at ''a silent world
shrouded in darkness from the public''.
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