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Breakfast A my canteen selections is a packet of cereal called Variety, eight different cereals in little boxes I start off with so called Coco Pops Not bad, but it’s still al’s Cornflakes

931 am

Thepapers are delivered to the duty officer They’re full of stories confired from D-cat to C-cat because of Emma Nicholson’s accusations

950 am

Ms Labersham arrives and actually knocks politely onit She unlocks ‘the iron barrier’ and tellsclass

I’ roouaranteeing a standing ovation Mo his own plastic chair Once the nine of them are settled, Ms Labershaests that I should speak for about an hour and then open it up for a general discussion

I’ve never spoken for an hour in my life; it’s usually thirty minutes, forty at the most before I take questions On this occasion I speak for just over forty e of thirty-four after leaving Parlia bankruptcy The last tias as the principal guest of a US hotel group They flew ave me a suite of rooms and sent me home with a cheque for 50,000

Today, I’ nine Belmarsh inmates, and Ms Labersham has confirmed that hland Spring and a tube of toothpaste)

When I’ve finished my talk, I am surprised how lively the discussion is that follows One of the prisoners, Michael (aged twenty-one,writer, a subject about which I know very little I don’t feel I can tell him that a lyricist is as different to a novelist as a brain surgeon is froist Michael wants me to read out his latest effort It’s already forty verses in length I offer you one:

No room, but to leave

You call out, calling for me

to come back

but all you can hear is the sound of your own voice

calling out my name

Michael heard yesterday that the judge had given hihteen years