The Politics and Culture of Decline. 'Not With a Bang But a Whimper' is a beautifully-written and thought-provoking collection of pieces on subjects as diverse as the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand controversy, violent crime on Britain's streets, the effects of the welfare state, modern architecture and the respective merits of Shakespeare and Dr Johnson. Theodore Dalrymple uses examples from his long career as a prison doctor, and his travels to every corner of the globe, to illustrate his central view - that Britain is in the throes of a catastrophic cultural, social and political decline.

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...