This book is certainly an eye opener. If you thought you knew what goes on inside British prisons, well it’s time to think again!

In 2016, author Chris Atkins was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment after being found guilty of tax fraud. He spent the first 9 months of his sentence at HMP Wandsworth and kept a journal during his time inside. The resulting book is very readable and surprisingly humorous.  Written with a dark ‘gallows’ humour, some of the stories Atkins tells really are very funny in their absurdity. However, humour aside, I found myself gobsmacked at the absolute shambles that is the current prison system. From the poor state of the tiny prison cells to the total lack of communication between the guards and prison authorities, the incompetence displayed is quite frankly astonishing.

It is easy for those of us who have never experienced prison life to say that those in prison have ‘got what they deserved’, or that prison ‘isn’t supposed to be a holiday camp’. However, we’re not talking about luxury here, but rather the very basics of humanity - the right to shower on a weekly basis, the right to medical treatment and the right not be terrorised, bullied or racially abused by our fellow prisoners or even our cell mates. The prisoners, a lot of them suffering from addiction or severe mental health problems, are locked in 6ft x 12ft cells sometimes for up to 24 hours a day due to under staffing or a breakdown in prison procedures. It is hard to grasp the hopelessness and despair that must permeate throughout the wings. Without TVs, books, education and jobs, those prisoners would have nothing positive to focus on. I realised from the book just how essential family phone calls, visits and positive experiences/activities are to a prisoner’s well-being and to their rehabilitation.

Atkins was clever enough to observe how the system really works and was able to get himself moved to the best wing in the prison (Trinity), before making all the right moves to earn his privileges and improve his prospects of making it through his sentence in relative comfort (although in reality the term ‘comfort’ is really is a massive over-exaggeration of what he experienced).  Yet he was one well-educated person amongst a population of thousands and the majority won’t fare as well as him. He was one of the lucky ones.

There are some positive aspects to the book, such as the humour and camaraderie displayed by the prisoners and the way they develop and look after their own communities on the wings. Yet any positivity is massively overshadowed by the chaos, squalor and bleakness of life inside those walls.

I felt particularly sad when Atkins described his separation from his young son, Kit. He was fortunate that both Kit’s mother and grandmother were very supportive and ensured he received visits and regular updates. However, not all prisoners will have that same advantage and it really highlighted to me how it is not only the criminal who is punished by a prison sentence, but also the family left behind.

In the final chapters, Atkins lists the changes that he would make if given the chance. His ideas are reasonable and logical. I wish that I had read that list before reading the book, as I would have been interested to know how my views on his proposals would have changed from beginning to end.

Darkly entertaining, shocking and touching, this book made me laugh out loud, it made me sad to the point of tear, it left me frustrated and it made me very angry. It shows in stark relief the failings of the current UK penal system. The real question is whether the government is doing anything to fix it? Unfortunately, I suspect not…

Thanks to Atlantic Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of this book.

I have never read anything like this before and I have to admit before reading I did have a slight 'prison is easy' attitude however Atkins has really changed that around for me and I now feel ashamed of that. I couldn't put this book down and was fully absorbed from page one. What a well needed piece of work. Well done. Highly recommend.

A fascinating and eye-opening account of life inside Wandsworth Prison, written with warmth and humour. Some of the Catch-22 problems faced by prisoners due to administrative inefficiencies and general staff shortages were mind-boggling.

A Bit of a Stretch isn't simply an entertaining book but it is one that would probably educate the majority of people who read it on an aspect of our nation that we know little about. It starts off a little bit like you would imagine if Jack Whitehall was imprisoned but gradually those laugh out loud moments diminish and I felt this was more telling of Chris' adaption to the environment and his new norm rather than his writing becoming less entertaining.
The frustration at ineffective systems and the basic lack of care / supplies / services was extremely evident and easily understood throughout the book and considering that we are a first world country and it being 2020 the fact that these archaic systems remain in place is ludicrous. And that these are evidenced to be a huge causing factor in the numerous cases of violence, self harm and suicidal feelings / behaviour is just a self destructive loop where the more strain put on offenders the more strain is put on the prison system which then puts more strain on the offenders etc. Clearly something has to be done to bring our justice system up to date and fit for purpose.
I personally believe that Chris has done a very valuable act in writing this book and in bringing some attention and raising of awareness of our prison system. If we are completely honest, a middle class, well educated, white collar crime prisoner is more likely to be listened to, as horrible as that is to admit. I particularly liked how Chris would reference and add information from specific relevant policies and articles throughout the book. I found it to be a very well written and well structured book with a good mix of personality and facts.

This was a pretty shocking account of the prison system in the UK. We often point to the injustices of the penal system in the US, without proper recourse to what's happening here. With mental health issues, addiction issues, corruption and issues of infrastructure. It was great but horrible, and left me with a lot to think about.

A Bit of a Stretch was a fascinating yet shocking first-hand account of the prison system. It was a real eye-opener into some of the horrors, from the dilapidated buildings and endless bureaucracy to the mental health issues and addictions affecting prisoners today. I found it heartbreaking yet funny at times, sad yet enlightening. The book highlights the urgent need for prison reform.

Most people think prisoners have a chushdy life behind bars. And I once had that view to, until I started working for a company who were contracted by HMPPS. I then learnt first hand what some prisoners had to go through, the segregation and the sometimes inhumane way they were treated. So this is why I was eager to read Chris's book on his time in Wandsworth. The prison system is systematically letting these people down. Not all prisoners are hardened crims!!

A great book, a shocking book and I urge you to read it.

Chris should be the next Justice Secretary!!!

This should be a must read for everyone.
An in-depth and eye-opening look at the brutal life behind bars. It's not all as we imaged it to be, and this first-hand view of what really goes on is proof of this.
It's not all doom and gloom though, a very quick and interesting read.
Thanks very much to Netgalley and Chris Atkins for the opportunity to read and review.

If you believed the tabloids, UK prisons best resemble state-funded holiday camps. This illusion is quickly flattened in this prison life memoir. Atkins is thrown into the deep end in Wandsworth, where over-crowded wings filled with mostly drug addled prisoners are stuck in indefinite 'lockdown' (locked in their cells) due to the severely low staffing levels. Much is made of education and rehabilitation programmes in the induction materials he received when entering the prison, but this is quickly cleared up as false advertising, with only a small minority of prisoners able to avail of this opportunity. Atkins paints an authoritative picture of prison life as riddled with inefficiencies and absurd red tape, and a continuous breach of minimum accepted living standards in penal policy. I found this book emotive and personal in its exploration of provocative issues in a (largely) nuanced fashion. I can see why he has succeeded as a documentary maker.

A major theme explored throughout is the mental health of the prisoners, which was handled very well by the author. As to be expected in these living conditions, mental health is an endemic issue with prisoners locked in a cell for long periods of time, unable to even shower or telephone their families. Atkins does not shy away from exposing the hard truth of this; as a Listener - a prisoner-led counselling campaign in collaboration with the Samaritans charity - Atkins records his conversations with a series of suicidal and deeply disturbed prisoners with serious psychiatric conditions - all of which are drowning in general population without the care they need. According to Atkins, there is a complete lack of mental health support offered by prison authorities so Listeners are instead appointed as de facto counselors after only a few weeks of training. While Atkins is honest about initially being attracted to this position as it gave him more freedom to get out of his cell, it is clear that his time as a Listener deeply affected him as an opportunity to make a difference.

Another interesting aspect explored here is, as a memoir of a prisoner, it is openly unrepresentative of the majority of inmates in UK prisons. He notes himself that he had a relatively privileged experience - as an educated, white collar criminal, he was soon accepted into a group of city bankers and finance criminals and was treated well by the prison officers. As a result of this, he swiftly rose to the top of the internal class system and filled many of the coveted positions of authority, giving him more freedom and a 'lux' cell. Unlike the majority of the other inmates, he can read and write and does not suffer from drug addiction. While it is heartening to see from a justice perspective that rich white collar criminals can and will end up in prison just like everyone else, it is also clear that they continue to rule the roost - just of another segment of society.

All in all, it is perhaps not surprising that I found this book so gripping due to the interesting subject matter. By way of warning, however, this book primarily takes place over the first nine months of his two and a half year custodial sentence, and ends after becoming a Cat D prisoner and moving to an open prison. I was looking forward to reading about the differences between the UK prisons he experienced; however, he addresses this directly by stating that his tale from then on became quite mundane. In hindsight, I think this was a good editorial decision; however, I wish I had known that going in.

This should be mandatory reading for anyone working on the prison system.

I'm always quite fascinated by real life memoirs and this one didn't disappoint. I was very engaged with it and found myself picking it up anytime I had a free moment which was easy to do since it was in a diary format with short digestible entries.

I haven't known anyone who's been to jail so I felt like it was my responsibility to read this to figure out what it's like. It's easy for privileged people to just brush away the thought of prisoners being treated so poorly whilst we get on with our lives outside but it's an appalling injustice and our society should not be tolerating it. Books like these are very important in helping to broaden your mind beyond your own individual experiences.

I hope reading Chris's story has made me less judgemental. And I hope that it goes some way to improve conditions, particularly for prisoners suffering from mental illness.

I’m a bit of a sucker for a true life reality book and this one is definitely up there as one of the best. An intriguing and truly interesting read about a hard and troubled life.

I didn’t think I would enjoy this book as much as I did. Utterly fascinating to get a real glimpse of life behind bars. Some of what I read I almost forgot I was reading someone’s real life experience as You would like to think that couldn’t possibly happen in real life.
Thank you so much for letting me read this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

In this book, Chris Atkins documents his time spent in Wandsworth prison, after being charged with tax fraud. What is to follow is a fascinating account of his time spent in what can only be described as hell, alongside information about the declining state of our prison system. With overcrowding, poor diet, poor hygiene, 24 or even 48 hour lockdowns due to staff shortages, this is a scathing account of our prison system. Little wonder that self-harm, suicide and drug use are increasing at an alarming rate. He is horrified by the lack of access to mental health services. By the level of cruelty and inefficient and pointless bureaucracy. By the levels of illiteracy which make the chances of reoffending more likely than not. If we lock people up to rehabilitate and educate, we are surely failing after reading this book. Chris Atkins then goes on to list recommendations that would not only give prisoners more dignity and more education, they would actually cost the taxpayer less money than is currently being spent on pointless box ticking initiatives. Despite the horrors of Wandsworth though, Chris was able to form meaningful friendships, and showed us that even at our bleakest moments it is heartening to think that, 'there's humour, hope and kindness in even the darkest corners of the world'.

A fascinating insight into what it is really like behind bars. Written with honesty and without judgement the author highlights the problems that exist in jail and lead to reoffending, such as mental illness and lack of education. Also how politicians cannot run prisons as rebranding really doesn't fix anything. I how this book is read by the people who really can change things.

I find day-in-the-life insight type books to be quite fascinating, particularly from perspectives that you might not get a chance to learn about any other way. As a female reader who has always been as much as a ‘model’ citizen as possible, the male prison system definitely fits the bill! It’s a very interesting topic with the scope to allow for some humorous and scary situations but also for more serious discussions of politics and government funding. Chris Atkins finds a really nice balance in this; he has the somewhat unique perspective of a journalist who was sentenced to 5 years in prison, which means he got a full picture of the gritty underside of HMP Wandworth, rather than the rose-tinted tour that actual journalists get when visiting. There is a lot of humour and anecdotes which really show how over-bureaucratic and yet completely underfunded the prison system is. There are also some very personal and sad stories of individual prisoners including their backstories and sentences which makes the book hit home. Every chapter there’s also a section that tackles a topic raised such as hygiene, drugs or visitation rights and explores it in a wider context of UK prisons as a whole which was very interesting. Chris’ role helping the Samaritans and becoming a Listener also meant you got some hard to read stories of self-harm and psychological issues within the prison system and how this is dealt with.

As interesting an insight as this is, there is a certain element to which even Chris doesn’t get the full experience of prison life. Being middle-class, white and educated sets him apart from other prisoners who are treated differently. He also falls in with a very good crowd who mentor him and show him the ropes and how to play the system. Psychologically he also only has a relatively short stint in Wandsworth before moving to open prison and his family are completely supportive of him throughout with his child able to visit him regularly. This does mean you still get a slight bias as to his experience compared to prisoners in other circumstances. This does however, mean you have someone who is able to question the prison and reform system as it stands, and his last chapter is dedicated to first-hand suggestions of changes and improvements from someone who has been in those conditions.

Going through the book on my Kindle, I was quite disappointed that the footnotes where not linked in, however, when I got to the end and saw they were all just websites anyway it doesn’t actually detract much from the reading experience. I doubt I would have kept flicking to the end of a paper book to read them anyway! Some parts also felt a little repetitive in places but that is possibly because the book lends itself more to being dipped in and out of rather than read in a few sittings like I did!

Overall A Bit of a Stretch is a fascinating insight into the prison system which draws on humour but also makes a very serious point about the conditions of these institutions and how they are run. Thank you to NetGalley & Atlantic Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a witty and interesting account of the author's experience in the modern British prison system. As he points out, it's hard to get a realistic and unfiltered view of modern prisons if you don't have any personal experience. It's written in an anecdotal diary style, with the addition of facts and figures relevant to the subject. I found it engaging, emotional, and amusing, with a likeable narrator.

Atkins acknowledges that being a white, middle class, educated man gave him an easier time than many of his fellow prisoners. Even so, he experienced and saw some horrifying and frightening things. I found some of it heartbreaking to read. I thought he humanised his fellow prisoners well whilst not shying away from their crimes. Some of the situations he encountered as a Samaritans Listener were particularly harrowing.

I think this is an important book that should be widely read, shining a light on our failing prison system and the huge amount of harm it is causing.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Atlantic Books, and the author Chris Atkins.
This was an absolutely fascinating glimpse inside the UK's prison system, and the horrendous conditions that prisoners in Wandsworth have to endure day after day.
The book's summary describes it perfectly, 'horrifying, moving, and darkly funny'. Well worth a read, interesting and insightful. 4 stars.

A Bit of Stretch is the real life account of Chris Atkins' experience in HMP Wandsworth.

It is a brutal tale, detailing exactly what goes on behind bars.

It changed my opinion of the prison systems. We all think that men are behind bars with Playstations, X boxes galore.

I was shocked in many parts about exactly what goes on behind bars.

It was also a humorous book and I enjoyed reading this.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'A Bit of a Stretch'. I was fascinated by this book and couldn't put it down. I appreciated the detail the author went into detailing daily life in the prison, the injustices, the constraints due to a lack of funding and the sad statistics about reoffending.

Everyone should read this book - both to deter people form committing crimes and to understand that the current prison system is not working.

A stunning book that should be read by everyone involved in the criminal justice system. The author is jailed for a white collar fraud and he is honest and brave about facing up to his sentence. Because he is erudite and funny, the book races along despite the horrendous subject matter. It's horrendous, not because of any nastiness or gore but because of the mundane madness of day to day life in the British prison system.

The mistakes and the stupidity are shocking and the system waste is shown clearly. What is amazing is nothing will probably change because the people who have the power probably won't read this - sadly. This is a world where everything is for sale and mental health issues and desperation are everyday. Mr Atkins explains all the ways that he is frustrated and when he is scared. Both are regular occurrences. He also takes a role as a "Listener" - prisoners who act as Counsellors for other prisoners who need someone to talk to. Through this we learn of the problems of other prisoners and the sad ways they are ground down. Lack of access to family, to information and even to showers are common and the lock up for most of the day is the norm.

Recommended for anyone working in the criminal justice system, thinking of working in it or studying sociology or criminology. Also recommended if you like a good read with an insight into a way of life you'll hopefully never experience.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.