A Bit Of A Stretch - The Diaries Of A Prisoner

A Bit of a Stretch - The Diaries of a Prisoner is a memoir by documentary-maker Chris Atkins. It is presented as a diary-based account of life inside Her Majesty's Prison Service.

Synopsis

The book opens with stark questions about prison life, from the informal economy to the availability of drugs and the everyday response to self-harm. Atkins describes how, having previously given little thought to prisons, he became involved in a dubious scheme to finance his latest film and was sentenced to five years.

He writes about his time in HMP Wandsworth, described as one of the largest and most dysfunctional prisons in Europe, and the people he encounters there, from drug dealers to senior officials focused on reform. Told with dark humour and a series of shocking stories, the memoir sets out to expose the reality behind locked gates and argues that the state of the prison system has wider consequences.