DARTMOOR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27410, 24 July 1954, Page 3

DARTMOOR

The Truth About Dartmoor By George Dendrickson and Frederick Thomas. Gollancz. 240 pp. Two ex-inmates of Dartmoor, Britain’s most feared and hated prison, wrote the notes for this book when they were in prison and hid them in a new hiding-place each day, returning after their release to dig up the material, which they had buried in canisters on a working site outside the prison walls. Their book, though damning is written without bitterness; it has the ring of sincerity and moderation about it, and it commands more respect than many books written on prison-life by former prisoners, because the authors frankly describe their own past lives and the reasons for their conviction in the opening chapters. (Too many such writers never mention their own crimes, merely hinting or leaving the reader to guess that they were unjustly convicted.) A book so well documented can hardly go unheeded, and it is to be hoped that the authors’ strictures on the hygiene, sanitation, unnecessary “needling” of prisoners, inefficient (and sometimes callous) medical attention, and the cruelties of warders will find attention in the proper quarters. The book is also an interesting and often 1 entertaining human document, giving accounts of “Dartmoor slang” and some of the more unusual personalities among the prisoners. A history of the 1 nrison is provided, and the authors ' have gone to much trouble to inform ' themselves thoroughly about its affairs, as well as to offer constructive > suggestions for improvements in their ; closing chapter. They deserve to be read.