High Down Prison Reading Group



Name: High Down Prison Reading Group

Where from: Sutton Lane, Surrey

Size of group (men/women): 10 (men)

How long you’ve been meeting: 3 ¾ years

Where you meet: High Down Prison Library

What your reading group means to you: A member has written a rhyme which represents all our views:

Reading group comes as a breath of fresh air;
A monthly release when close to despair
A freewheeling forum for expressions of thought
Analysis, criticism, witty retorts
Reading group means the distinct absence of rules
A nice coffee and biscuits
With other book-loving fools

What makes your reading group special:

In an environment which is very grey at the best of times, the reading group offers a chink of light though which members can escape the daily irritations of prison life, relax with a cup of coffee and some nice chocolate biscuits in the soothing atmosphere of the library and talk about something other than prison related topics. For the well-read it is a chance to talk intelligently about loved books and newly discovered books. For the less well-read floundering in a sea of words it provides gentle advice on what to read, an inkling of the fun in reading for pleasure and some signposts on how to get the most from a book.

Open to everybody, the group is inevitably mixed in terms of ethnic and educational background. The beauty of this is that the ‘unsophisticated’ reader can sometimes cut across the intellectual argument with an incisive, heartfelt view on what makes the book work for him – a sort of Everyman approach to reading.

Sometimes, a book will prompt reminiscences of unhappy life experiences. When the group read ‘A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Shot Gun’ by Razor Smith, the story of a career criminal, it prompted one member to talk about his experiences at the hands of an abusive stepfather. It was a highly personal account of why he felt his life had turned out the way it had. Every one in the group listened carefully and sympathetically, a non-verbal understanding existing that he trusted all present enough to open up in this way. The group is non-judgmental. The reading group has always been a place to share and discuss views. We can disagree but we don’t do it crossly because there is too much confrontation elsewhere!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that free coffee and chocolate biscuits are our unique selling point. One member looked sheepish when initially asked about his reading preferences but gallantly attempted all those titles thrust at him. He absolutely loved Patrick Suskind’s ‘Perfume’, saying he couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to finish. A small investment in chocolate biscuits had brought huge dividends.

External funding has allowed us to invite authors to talk about their work, including Fay Weldon, Philip Pullman, Minette Walters, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jake Arnott. All authors have been welcomed enthusiastically. Some authors have paid return visits free of charge because they have felt it to be so worthwhile.

We are currently involved in the Reading Agency project, looking at classics of the future. 100 books have arrived and we must select our top 15. It is an opportunity to read titles we wouldn’t have thought to try otherwise. Patrick Hamilton’s ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky’ has been read by someone who usually prefers fast-paced thrillers but ‘it must be good because nothing much happens but I wanted to read it to until the end’. The box of 100 is like a lucky dip – a bit like our reading group.