This compelling history of our most feared institution charts the growth of prisons across the country: castle dungeons and decaying hulks, the dreadful Fleet and Marshalsea of Dickens' novels and the soulless structures of Dartmoor and Reading Gaol. Drawing on rarely seen material from The National Archives, it vividly portrays aspects of prison life that stayed constant for centuries: loss of liberty, privacy and comfort; hard labour; restricted rations; and, solitary confinement; corporal punishment and execution - as well as tracing key developments such as Jeremy Bentham's panopticon,...