{"id":1851,"date":"2013-05-29T14:04:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T13:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2013-05-29T15:23:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T14:23:20","slug":"the-books-have-it-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=1851","title":{"rendered":"THE BOOKS HAVE IT–2."},"content":{"rendered":"

THE BOOKS HAVE IT….2.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Being a voracious reader on the outside my introduction into remand in Belfast Prison\u2014firstly in 1972\u2014and once again for most of 1975\u2014meant that it was a constant search and struggle to find suitable reading material.\u00a0 You accepted books from any source possible\u2014once from an IRA prisoner I met during a dental visit\u2014and many times from screws.\u00a0 Sometimes\u2014many times in fact\u2014you read books for the sake of reading and in many cases books you would normally give a second glance to.\u00a0 There were books that did the rounds and were read by virtually everyone.\u00a0 There were others that became coveted and were worthy of multiple reads.\u00a0 I saw books torn in half when a reader got to a certain point to allow a friend to commence it while he finished.\u00a0 There were fads, habits, rituals, penances, recommendations and duties.\u00a0 There was the obligatory scan of the Bible\u2014usually when ensconced in the punishment cells where other books were like gold dust and as obtainable as something pleasant to eat.
\nRemand time to me seemed to consist of a lot of down time when we were locked up quite a bit with virtually no recreational facilities\u2014no television\u2014and usually limited access to a transistor radio\u2014so reading was one way of passing the time.\u00a0 \u201cC\u201d Wing in the early seventies wasn\u2019t exactly a haven for books\u2014good or otherwise so basically you accepted what came your way.\u00a0 I was seventeen years old during my first remand and many of the others were of a similar age\u2014but most of the books were hand me downs from the older remand prisoners and these tended to be Westerns or War novels.\u00a0 It was here I was introduced to JT Edson and became familiar with Dusty Fog and the Ysabel Kid.\u00a0 Jack Schaffer\u2019s Shane was much read and was passed about quite a bit.\u00a0 Louis L\u2019Amour was another favourite of the time\u2014books of his that readily spring to mind are The Ferguson Rifle\u2014Shalako\u2014and the Sackett novels.\u00a0 As Gaudeamus previously mentioned the Sven Hassel books were particularly widely read and became the topic of many conversations over a cup of tea or a dander round the exercise yard.\u00a0 It was common to hear the prisoners relate the exploits of Porta, Tiny and Julius from the Panzer division full of renegade soldiers who no one else wanted. Legion Of The Damned is the one Hassel book I remember most.
\n\"\"<\/a>By 1973 I had been shifted\u2014against my wishes it has to be said, but on the back of a 4 year sentence\u2014to Long Kesh and into Compound 11.\u00a0 There were more like minded people here and many who read much more than I did.\u00a0 The substantial Compound library was supplemented by books sent in through the Welfare system on the outside.\u00a0 You still had the usual Westerns and War novels but increasingly, to me it became noticeable that many other more enlightening types of books were being read.\u00a0 One of the first books I remember borrowing was Dee Brown\u2019s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and also around this time I started reading Venceremos by John Gerrasi\u2014the writings of Che Guevara.\u00a0 I have to say that at this particular time I found it a little hard going and it was quite a while before I revisited that particular book.\u00a0 Suddenly I was spoilt for choice and time permitting\u2014because by now I had a routine that gave very little free time during the day\u2014I read as much as possible.\u00a0 Because of a new awareness and promptings from the more politically astute comrades my reading became more selective\u2014although I still enjoyed the escapism of novels\u2014I went through most of the Harold Robbins novels up until that date\u2014A Stone for Danny Fisher and Never Love A Stranger were the best of these.\u00a0 Politically the stand outs were ATQ Stewart\u2019s The Ulster Crisis\u2014greatly read throughout the compound\u2014The Making of Modern Ireland by JC Bekett, that to me gave a different perspective on Irish history\u2014and a biography of the great preacher Charles H. Spurgeon\u2014loaned to me by one of the \u201cgood living\u201d prisoners.\u00a0 \u201cA lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting its shoes on\u201d….was a memorable quote from Spurgeon.\u00a0 Throughout the years I was in Compound 11 and subsequently 18 and then 21, I have to say that I got through a huge amount of reading.\u00a0 More than most but certainly not as much as some\u2014like Billy Strain who was prolific.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t have been unusual for Billy to go through 2 or 3 novels daily!!\u00a0 Books that were of particular interest to me tended to be read and re read.\u00a0 Ones that fell into this category were Mario Puzo\u2019s, The Godfather\u2014which remains one of my personal fiction books.\u00a0 Again like Gaudeamus I went through the Vietnam thing.\u00a0 Dispatches by Michael Herr remains one of the greatest books about combat I have ever read.\u00a0 I have lost count of the copies I have gone through\u2014lending them out never to be returned.\u00a0 I still have a copy today!!\u00a0 If I Should Die In a Combat Zone\u2014Nam\u2014Sand in the Wind\u2014A Rumour of War\u2014Dien Bien Phu\u2014Going After Cacciato—the list is long.\u00a0 In between all the serious or academic reading much of my time was devoted to novels of all descriptions. Recommendations from others or trying someone new\u2014it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 What you did find was that a good book passed round like wildfire and if you read a new author you tended to go through their catalogue quite quickly.\u00a0 Stephen King\u2014Robert Ludlum\u2014Jack Higgins\u2014Joe Poyer\u2014all had their fans.\u00a0 Wilbur Smith was an author who caught the imagination of many.\u00a0 Maybe it was because he related to the adventure of the wide open spaces\u2014usually in Africa\u2014something that wasn\u2019t attainable to the \u201ccaptive readers\u201d.\u00a0 Like most others I read them with relish and would have no problem still revisiting the trilogy of \"\"<\/a>When The Lion Feeds\u2014The Sound of Thunder and A Sparrow Falls relating to the lives of the rival families The Courtneys and The Ballentines.\u00a0 Superb!!
\nI developed quite an interest in American Crime novels around this time\u2014an interest that has grown with age.\u00a0 My introduction to this genre was through reading a fine novel called The Friends of Eddie Coyle\u2014later turned into a movie with Robert Mitchum\u2014by George V. Higgins.\u00a0 I was hooked from the start and after going through his catalogue I branched out to\u2014James M. Cain\u2014Jim Thompson-Ross McDonald-Donald E. Westlake.\u00a0 I was insatiable.
\nBooks\u2014whether they were factual or fiction-which were prison related always held an interest and some were more memorable than others. Previously you have read about the Jimmy Boyle books\u2014both essential reading as was–A Day In the Life..No matter how depressing it was!!\u00a0 Others that stand out include Midnight Express\u2014Go Boy by Roger Caron, a story of a number of Canadian institutions visited by the author throughout his life\u2014The Executioners Song by \"\"<\/a>Norman Mailer\u2014the trial, imprisonment and public execution of multiple killer Gary Gilmore and Brubaker\u2014the story of the Arkansas State Prison scandal of 1967 uncovered by author Tom Murton.
\nIt is impossible to pick any one book throughout my time in the Compounds that I could say was my favourite.\u00a0 Suffice to say that I read thousands\u2014many forgettable but many more I remember fondly.\u00a0 Life in Long Kesh would have been much more difficult without the endless supply of books and for this avid reader, it made a Life sentence at least a little more attractive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Billy Joe<\/strong><\/p>\n

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