A Prison Diary

On July 19, 2001, following a conviction for perjury, international bestselling author Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison. Archer spent the first three weeks in the notorious HMP Belmarsh, a high-security prison in South London, home to murderers, terrorists, and some of Britain’s most violent criminals. On the last day of the trial, his mother died, and the world's press accompanied him to the funeral. On returning to prison, he was placed on the lifer's wing, where a cellmate sold his story to the tabloids. Prisoners and guards routinely lined up outside his cell to ask for his autograph, to get help writing letters, and to seek advice on their appeals. For twenty-two days, Archer was locked in a cell with a murderer and a drug baron. He decided to use that time to write an hour-by-hour diary, detailing the worst three weeks of his life. When A Prison Diary was published in England, it was condemned by the prison authorities, and praised by the critics.