True Crime writer Stephen Wade tells the stories of some of the men he has met in prison: cons and screws, librarians and Listeners, ex-squaddies and Storybook Dads. An outsider on the Inside, he tries to explore the psychic geography of a world of rage, hatred, loneliness and boredom - in Reception, on the landings, in the gym and down the Block. Stretch is a book about seductive dreams and wrong decisions, heroin and sadness, resolutions, resignation and regret, with an atonal soundtrack of keys and gates, and doors that slam 'like tombs'.