HELL - Jeffrey Archer

In 2001 author and deputy chairman of the British Conservative Party (Lord) Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years imprisonment for perjury. Guess what? he was innocent as well!!.

During his time in prison he wrote three diaries, one each for the different prisons he served his time in.

The edition I have has all three volumes incorporated and I have read the first volume "Hell". This concerns his first three weeks of incarceration at the maximum security prison Bellmarsh.

It is a quirk of the British justice system that you initially get sent to a maximum security prison to get classified before being sent to a prison that suits your crime and history etc. Personally this seems a bit harsh even for the likes of Archer, as a drunk driver is locked up with career criminals who are doing years in maximum.

As I said above, Archer thinks he was innocent and constantly writes about it, but reading this diary if Jeffrey Archer told me the sky was blue, I would go outside and check.

What I really have a problem with is that even though Archer was a celebrity prisoner I cannot see multiple murderers opening up to a short term prisoner in the way he says they do.

I will persevere and read the other two volumes as the first was only over a three week period and he managed to write 267 pages on that. The following two diaries may give a bit more about the system rather than poor old innocent Jeff.

CAPTAIN BULLEN'S WAR - John Bullen

I have just gone through a short martial period with my reading and it was purely unintentional. I just kept coming across good books set during wars.

This latest is no exception. It is the Vietnam War diary of Captain John Bullen, who was the officer in charge of the Australian Topographical Section stationed at Nui Dat with the Australian Task Force. He was stationed there for a period of 13 months and kept a daily diary.

Bullen was a career soldier ,a Captain on his posting and was made up to Major by the end of his tour. As he was a career soldier we don't get any overt criticism of his superiors or the fact that Australian was even in the war but we get little asides at pedantic behaviour by several of his senior officers.

He was not a combat soldier but was called upon several times while duty officer to deal with attacks on the task forces perimeter which was constantly probed by NVA and Viet Cong forces.

We get a good daily report of how Australian troops fought and (mis)behaved when not fighting. Bullen was a teetotaller so he is to my way of thinking a bit over critical of drunken behaviour by troops who had been out getting shot at and then getting hugely on the grog.

There is also a very good account of how the mail strikes and such back in Australia organised by communist unions affected the morale of the troops. The author had a leading hand in the "Punch a Postie" campaign and he should have got a medal for this alone.

A very good diary and well worth the effort if you can find it. The book was only published in 2009 and the copy I have is a review one I found second hand in Wellington, so there might be a few about.

HALFWAY TO HOLLYWOOD: Diaries 1980-1988 - Michael Palin

I love reading diaries. I think its the voyeur in me.

This is the second installment of Michael Palin's diaries.

This volume covers the period post the Python television series. From when he was most prolifically involved in making movies, up until the eve of his departure for the first travel series. (Around the World in 80 Days).

Palin was always my favourite Python and these diaries just flow along seamlessly, with lots of gossip, none of it too nasty, but with enough detail to make it interesting.

We have the inside view of getting movies made and financed ,which appears to be a very hard business indeed.

The highlight for me in this volume is when he and fellow Python Terry Gilliam go on a short trip to Checkoslovakia. We have wonderful descriptions of what he observed under a communist regime. This augers well for later volumes when I presume the travel shows he has done for the last twenty years will dominate.

Its not all about the movies, we have lots about his family, who he is very close to, included is the sadness of his sister's suicide.

This is very funny in parts as you would expect from a Python and it shows how hard he works, he just never stops. As well as work for cash he is constantly hit upon for charity events and public works.

After two volumes Palin can not lay claim to being a great diarist yet,I believe he will get much better as we get more of his personal observations rather than a ball by ball account of film production and the like. He is a very good writer already and will only get better.

These are genuine diaries and not written for a contract and also there appears to be no hindsight editing, which keeps it real for me.

A very busy, interesting man and the good thing is there should be according to my admittedly very poor maths, at least another 4 volumes.