A uniquely-sourced account of the life and times of one of the UK"s most famous prisons - a fame that flows directly from an account of the execution of Trooper Charles Thomas Wooldridge (CTW) as written by Reading Gaol"s best-known prisoner, C.3.3, the pseudonym of Oscar Wilde. Wilde"s Ballad of Reading Gaol, his last work for publication in 1898 is known the world over for its insights and telling phrases, such as "bricks of shame", "souls in pain" and "that little tent of blue, that prisoners call the sky". Possibly the greatest and most influential artistic work in terms of penal reform and conveying to outsiders the desolate nature and experience of imprisonment, the ballad crystallises the degradation, isolation, fear, introspection and sense of loss involved. Based on close research over ten years, and written by a serving Reading prison officer with access to official records and the Execution Log. Stokes" account: Tells the history of Reading Gaol from early times to the...