This young adult novel tells of 17 year old Lee who has just been incarcerated in a Young Offenders Institution for robbery and assault. We found it a stark and vivid account of the brutal nature of such an environment. It describes the games played by “the cons” in their moral, emotional and physical manipulation of each other, and the games played by “the screws” who seem to exist in a different dimension, hardly aware of, and ill-equipped to cope with the grim reality of what is going on around them. Anyone who has read a good book about prison life (or indeed, been “inside” themselves) will know, for instance, that prisoners become highly ingenious at constructing banned items out of anything they have either smuggled into jail or extorted out of other inmates. Lee enters as an innocent in terms of prison life and is soon sucked in, unable to tell the truth to a well-meaning “screw” about whether he is or is not being bullied or abused. Only after a horrific sequence of events do we see any kind of breakthrough, into a resolution to live a different life “outside”….not a “scummy grey little life”, not a “manky, clanging-in-my-ears sort of life”, but “a life full of colours.”
Some members of the group found certain aspects of the plot slightly confusing, and felt concerned about the behaviour and choices of different characters, such as Lee’s mum and girlfriend, and Errol’s mum, but generally opinion of this book was high. 3 of us gave it 9/10, one gave it 8/10 and another gave it 7/10.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 20th April at 4.15 – 5.15pm and we have chosen “At the Firefly Gate” by Linda Newberry. Report by Sheila Robinson
‘Inside’ by Julia Jarman P/B £5.99 Andersen 
’At The Firefly Gate’ by Linda Newbery P/B £7.99 Orion
