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This article examines the contents of a previously neglected source: the letters that English criminals wrote from prison c.1680–1800. These letters provide us with new insights into the experience of punishment away from the scaffold, and they give us a view of the importance of literacy as a means of communication for many ordinary men and women. Family, friendship and community ties were often strengthened by imprisonment, but could also be challenged. Many writers used letters to obtain practical support while in prison, but they also found writing was a means to reflect upon what they held to be most important. Sentiment and deeply held beliefs were expressed in their letters home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the life and imprisonment of the largely unknown middle-class artist and British suffrage activist Katie Gliddon and analyzes her extensive prison diary, secretly written and drawn in her copy of The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley at London's Holloway Prison in March and April 1912. By creating a platform for the voices of ‘ordinary’ prisoners and by opening up a space for a transgressive gaze between suffragettes, ‘ordinary’ prisoners and female officers, Gliddon's writings allow us to complicate our understanding of cross-class relations within the women's suffrage campaign and in women's prisons more generally speaking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The author, who has worked at the Institute of Race Relations since 1970, recalls the Spaghetti House siege of 1975, when three armed, young, political black men intent on a small-scale robbery ended up holding nine waiters hostage for five days. The home secretary and senior police officers, anxious that such an event should not be repeated, played down the political element of the crime; the black community thought otherwise. The piece goes on to record the reaction to his incarceration of Wesley Dick (Shujaa Moshesh), one of the ‘gunmen’ protagonists, who had used the IRR as an educational centre and later kept in touch via letter, visits from IRR staff and by sending out his poetry in two collections. This account is interspersed with Shujaa’s poems on black politics, imprisonment and world events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many poets have had to face execution, and the last poetic words of several English and Scottish poets of the Early Modern era were verses written in conventional forms made more poignant by the circumstances of their composition. These private poems illuminate the characters of the poets and the way they confronted the more public occasion of execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the letters written in Marshalsea prison by William Herle, who was imprisoned for charges of piracy and acted as agent provocateur on behalf of the government of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The letters addressed to the English Secretary of State William Cecil, Baron Burghley, and detail information about the 1571 Ridolfi Plot, a Catholic plan to assassinate Elizabeth and have her replaced by Mary, Queen of Scots. The author also considers how Elizabethan prisoners circumvented prison rules as a way to improve their situations while in prison.

The article discusses the book "Of the Consolation of Philosophy" by Boethius, a Christian philosopher of the 6th century, and considers how this text influenced religious thought of the Medieval period as well as later prison writings of the early modern period in Great Britain. The author considers the prison writings of English prisoners Saint Sir Thomas More, courtier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, and dissenter John Bunyan and displays how these writings reflected their authors' political and religious goals and strategies. The author considers scholarly aspects of the study of early modern prison writings including authenticity, authorship, and provenance.

The article focuses on the religious writings of English nonconformist John Bunyan, especially the conversion narrative "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666)" and the Protestant allegory "Pilgrim's Progress," generally believed to have being written while he was imprisoned for his religious practices in Bedford, England from 1660-1672. The article also discusses the religious policies regarding dissenters during the Restoration period of King Charles II of England; censorship of religious writings; and Bunyan's use of religious themes including testimony, confession, and predestination.

The article focuses on the monograph "This Is a Short Relation of Some of the Cruel Sufferings...in the Inquisition in the Island of Malta," (1662) by English Quakers Katherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers. The women were held by the Roman Inquisition in a Maltese prison from 1659 to 1663 by orders issued by Cardinal Barberino in Rome, Italy. The author explores ideas of the women's Britishness versus the Continentalism of their male captors; the women's Quaker religious beliefs, which included their characterization of themselves as martyrs and prophets; and the Catholic beliefs of the Inquisitors.

A biography is presented for English author, inventor, teacher, linguist, and doctor Simon Sturtevant, who died circa 1624 after serving roughly ten years in a debtors' prison in London, England. He was born in Lincolnshire, England and attended Cambridge University for both his BA and MA, gaining repute as a lexicographer after graduation. The author considers his prison writing (c. 1623) titled "Princelie Preseruatiues or the helmet of health," dedicated to Prince Charles, later Charles I.

The article explores the relationship between prison conditions and prisoners' writings during the early modern period in England. The author focuses on poetry and psalms written by prisoners and considers how such writings portray the social disorder of the period. Some of the writings considered include the 1650s manuscript of royalist Sir Walter Slingsby written while he was held in the Tower of London; the 1640s manuscript created by lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons Sir John Glanville while he was held in the Tower of London; and the book "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison," by Michel Foucault, translated by Alan Sheridan.

The article discusses how the writings of prisoners in Great Britain during the early modern period became a cultural form of literature. The author explores how the growth of publishing and the book trade expanded the readership of such writings. The article also discusses the differences between bridewells and houses of correction; reasons for imprisonment including politics, religion, and debt; and social attitudes regarding honor, sin, and reputation. Anecdotes about religious prisoners such as Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner, Catholic prisoner Francis Tregian, and nonconformist Thomas Grantham are presented.

The author reports this special issue arose from the July 2007 conference "Prison Writings in Early Modern Britain" held at the University of York's Centre for Renaissance & Early Modern Studies. It discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Kathleen Lynch on British author John Bunyan, one by Catie Gill on writings by imprisoned Quaker women about prophecy and martyrdom, and one by Jerome de Groot on the writings of prisoners during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth periods.