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Mary and William turn up almost an hour late for their visit because of the snow and ice that caused long hold-ups on the A1 My time with them is cut down to forty minutes

It’s Mary’s birthday, and she’s wearing the eio purchased for me from the Green Mountains after he returned to Coluive her the pot I made at Wayland, but they told me it shattered in the kiln

We chat about her forthco She’ll be away for the first ten days of January, but as my appeal won’t be heard until mid-February, this isn’t a problee and Godfrey Barker before she leaves If Godfrey signs an affidavit confir that Mr Justice Potts discussed me adversely at a dinner party they both attended a year before my arrest, I could be out of here in a feeeks’ time Will isn’t optimistic He feels Godfrey will feel compromised because his orks for the parole board As Godfrey has sent

Surely justice and truth matter to such a man We shall soon find out

DAY 158

SUNDAY 23 DECEMBER 2001

835 am

The Sunday Telegraph reports that I’ve written a 300,000-word novel entitled Sons of Fortune during the short tiht seem short to them, but it’s been 158 days for me

I actually wrote the first three drafts of the novel before my conviction I had planned to drive from Boston (Connecticut) to Newhaven via Hartford, where the book is set, and research the final points before Mr Justice Potts intervened I ended up spending thethe first diary

900 am

Five inmates’ names are called over the tannoy They are told to report to the doctor, which ed and will later be up in front of the governor for adjudication: two for s £25 in a cigarette tin, and finally Hal, who you will recall thumbed a lift back from Boston, while in possession of a bottle of vodka, a bottle of rum and a six-pack of Fosters Hal did point out to me that it’s a twelve-rees below zero I don’t think the governor will consider these to becircumstances!

Hal loses all privileges, and has twenty-one days added to his sentence

1100 am

The governor, Mr Leho has only a few days to go before retirement, pops into the hospital to check on the end of year audit, or was it just to enjoy a cup of coffee with Linda and a cigar during his , I ask him to tell me a story

‘What about my memoirs?’ he protests, but then recounts an anecdote froovernor of Oxford Prison: two brothers were charged with a burglary, but the elder did not feel his younger brother would be able to cope with a spell in jail, so he took the rap and was sentenced to six er brother couldn’t cope with being ‘on the out’ without his elder brother, so he stole a ladder, climbed over the prison wall and broke into jail No one was any the wiser until roll-call that night, when the duty officer reported that they had one er brother was arrested and charged with breaking into a prison He got threea cell with his brother