Strangeways Unlocked : The Shocking Truth About Doing Time by Neil ‘Sam’ Samworth

Strangeways Unlocked, Neil Samworth’s follow-on from Strangeways: A Prison Officers Story, is another educational read if you can stomach the awful reality of the British Criminal Justice System. (Spoiler : it’s a mess.)

Mainly coming from ex-prisoners perspectives, or ‘customers’, as Sam prefers to call them, we hear from the people who got on the wrong side of the law and paid the price (or did they?) in the high-security HMP Manchester, aka, Strangeways.

HMP Manchester aka Strangeways

As I said in my review for the first book, Yorkshireman Sam, tells it how it is. I’d like to think that I’m pretty clued up in Yorkshire-isms, it’s a language unto itself, at times. However, I got used to the way it was written pretty quickly. I do love an accent, me, so if you fancy yourself some true Brit-grit, grab a brew, read this book and…

Anyroad, (ha!) vicious and vile, brutally funny, yet oddly mesmerising, this isn’t your average non-fiction true crime read. Those of you that are aware of my reading tastes know that I’m not easily shocked, especially when it comes to what (fictional) humans are capable of, but seriously, this is something else. Why? Because the deeply sad and troubling things in this book are true.

And there’s the swearing, and I mean, all the sweary words, guys! This isn’t a book for everyone, but, if like me, you’re fascinated by crime, gang culture and the usual skullduggery that comes with it, you’ll fly through this one. It comes with all the feels! (Good and bad!)

This isn’t one for the faint of heart, subjects throughout include drug abuse, self-harm, murder, suicide, sexual assault, and no surprise – the impact it all has on the mental health of the prisoners, their loved ones, and of course the staff.

Sam left the prison service back in 2016 due to being diagnosed with PTSD, but has continued his mission to educate and try and remove the stigma from people who end up held at His Majesty’s Pleasure.

So if you ‘enjoy’ your true crime harsh and horrifying, I recommend picking this one up. Just don’t come back to me about the eye-socket incident, okay?! You’ve been warned.

It’s a solid 4 stars from me! 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thanks very much Sam, I’m very grateful to you for sending me a signed copy.

The Yorkshire Witch: The Life and Trial of Mary Bateman by Summer Strevens

‘When Mary Bateman was born, she was of so little importance that the date of her birth went unrecorded. When it came to her final moments on the gallows however, thousands of spectators witnessed her execution upon York’s ‘New Drop’ on the morning of Monday 20th March 1809, some of whom, packed shoulder to shoulder in the crowd, were convinced to the very end that the Yorkshire Witch would save herself from death at the last moment by employing her supernatural powers to vanish into thin air as the noose tightened. Needless to say, she didn’t.’

Mary Bateman was no witch! More a petty thief and fraudster with a sociopathic personality. She was intelligent and used her reading and writing abilities (a rare attribute for women of this era) for unsavoury financial gains.

This was an interesting account of crime in the early 1800’s, as rarely were women seen to be of criminal mind, often simply being deemed ‘mad’ and locked away in an asylum.

Mary was charming and manipulative and had an inventive imagination, often making up non-existent characters, used purely to back up her dodgy dealings, to improve her chances of getting more money out of her victims.

She was labelled a witch because of her wicked ways, having some knowledge of herbs and remedies and offered her own kind of ‘healthcare’ to many unfortunate women. Poisonings were her main go-to MO all in the name of lining her own pockets.

I enjoyed how Strevens’ put this book together, it read well as a nonfiction and had enough creativity to keep me reading. I particularly liked how the time period was described, this added to my reading experience in a positive way. The centre of the book has glossy photos which always gets bonus points from me in a nonfiction read!

As I was coming to the end, I really enjoyed how macabre this era was. I won’t give too much away, but the following picture shows how Mary ended up! As a museum exhibit, of all things, how shocking!

I’d recommend to British history enthusiasts, particularly folk who have lived in and around Leeds and York. A lot of settings would be familiar to folk who dwell in these parts!

The Yorkshire Witch gets 4 stars from me!

I’d like to say thank you to those lovely folk at Pen & Sword Publishers, in particular Rosie, who kindly sent me my copy in exchange for an honest review.

About the author

Born in London, Summer Strevens now lives and writes in Oxfordshire. Capitalising on a lifelong passion for historical research, as well as penning feature articles of regional historical interest, Summer’s published books include Haunted Yorkshire Dales, York Murder & Crime, The Birth of Chocolate City: Life in Georgian York, The A-Z of Curiosities of the Yorkshire Dales, Fashionably Fatal , Before They Were Fiction and The Yorkshire Witch: The Life and Trial of Mary Bateman.