A Prison Diary: 1

On July 19 2001 following a conviction for perjury international bestselling author Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison. When A Prison Diary was published in England it was condemned by the prison authorities and praised by the critics. Prisoner FF8282 as Archer is now known spent the first three weeks in the notorious HMP Belmarsh a high-security prison in South London home to murderers terrorists and some of Britains most violent criminals.. On the last day of the trial his mother dies and the worlds press accompany him to the funeral. On returning to prison hes placed on the lifers wing where a cellmate sells his story to the tabloids. Prisoners and guards routinely line up outside his cell to ask for his autograph to write 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.