Writers between 1700 and 1900 were always likely to see the inside of British prisons if their work had any kind of radical element, or anything that could be considered libellous or seditious. Even the great and successful novelists, poets and journalists of those years fell foul of the law, or perhaps knew others who did so.

‘Jane Austen’s Aunt Behind Bars: Writers and Their Criminal Relatives and Associates, 1700–1900’ tells the stories of an assortment of writers, both famous and obscure, whose lives included a knowledge or even a direct experience of prison life. The cases range from Daniel Defoe in Newgate to Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol, where he wrote his famous narrative poem, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol.’

From poet and editor Leigh Hunt’s family life inside prison to the sad tale of George Gissing’s theft in his efforts to maintain his Manchester girlfriend, Stephen Wade’s short biographies introduce the reader to the social context of prison and build up a gallery of prison portraits.