A Turnkey or Not‪?‬

A chance meeting on holiday in Majorca changed my life forever and launched me into a 25-year career in a job that I never would've considered previously: working in Her Majesty's Prison Service. This book catalogues my personal experiences of working as a prison officer, from my early days at high-security HMP Pentonville to my final years in therapy-based HMP Grendon. Filled with interesting observations and incidences, hilarious wind-ups and memorable characters, this autobiography is the story of a journey, from the happiest days in what will always be a potentially volatile environment to a complete state of disillusionment as an old dinosaur that no longer fitted into the modern prison service world. I give an honest account of my feelings, as someone who would never be a yes man and toe the party line faced with a constantly changing environment that had become increasingly controlled by political correctness gone mad and by budgetary needs rather than human needs. I am a man who cared, and even though my heart was sucked out of my job, I never lost my dignity or respect. Most importantly, I would never allow myself to be reduced to just a turnkey.

I am a 69-year-old Tottenham-born family man and former prison officer. After spending 25 years in the UK's prison service, and having become increasingly disillusioned with stifling modern prison service politics and practices, in 2008 I took my pension pot and ran, moving to Spain to spend my early retirement in the sun.