I read my recrnt blog on my experiences of launching a new program in a prison

The Tartan Con

Episode 24: The Unchained Melody

A very short 2 1/2 minute reading of Rudyard Kipling's poem "if". A little calming music in th background. Please enjoy.

Episode 23: If

The one where I discuss if I wa given the opportunity of turning my life clock back, would I ? The answer might surprise you.

Episode 22: Turn the Clock back?

Recorded in the wee small hours, "My Friend" Kahlil Gibran

Episode 21: Late night Poetry

I disect the horrnedously badly written press release issued by The Ministry of Justice in England referring to the building of 4 new prisons in England over the next 6 years. I state that this is a huge admission of failure on behalf of society.

Episode 20: The Government Admits Failure

Episode 19: The Red Setter

A reading of The Daffodils by Wordsworth Defeat by Kahlil Gibran The Road not Taken by Robert Frost. Enjoy!

Episode 18: Poetry. Wordsworth, Frost and Gibran

Today, in the back pages of the internet, it was revealed that HMPPS had decided to roll out PAVA spray throughout the male closed prisons. At this time when staff relations with prisoners is at an all time high, this decision beggars belief.

Episode 17: The Broken Contract

A few of my favourite excerpts from De Profundis. The Letter written by Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas. De Profundis is an amazing letter, showing the machinations of his mind.

Episode 16: De Profundis - Excerpts and a critique

De Profundis is a letter written by Oscar Wilde over 3 months in 1897 to Lord Alfred Douglas. In Part 1 there is a crtitique of De Profundis and I read the first 20 pages. Parts II, III & IV to follow.

Episode 15: De Profundis Part I

This letter, written in 1898 from Paris was Oscar Wilde's last known letter to the Editor of the Daily Chronicle. In it he discuss the need for urgent reform in England's gaols. In it you will hear about Wandsworth prison having in cell lavatories. Such was the outcry from the neighbourhood that a prison should be built with in cell facilitries that they were soon removed. Wilde was released from prison in May of 1897 and died in Paris some 3 years later. The average life expectancy of someone released from prison at this time was no more than 4 years.

Episode 14: Prison Reform according to Oscar Wilde

The Ballad of Reading gaol was written by Oscar Wilde in 1897, a year after he left prison and was living in self-imposed exile in France.

Episode 13: The Ballad of Reading Gaol - An Excerpt

Taken from the wonderful David Sedaris' book Squirrel Seeks Chimpunk

Episode 12: Two Short Stories

a short while after being reelased from prison Oscar Wilde writes to the Editor of the Daily Chronicle. In it he asks for the intervention of the newspaper in looking at the treatment of children in Prison and the treatment of those who are mentally ill. He decries the firing of an officer for giving a child a biscuit !

Episode 11: A Letter from Oscar Wilde to The Editor of the Daily Chronicle 1897

A Reading of the wonderful Desiderta originally written my Max Ehrman in 1927

Episode 10: Desiderata

This series is a follow on from the website www.TheTartanCon.blogspot.com. It will include Rants on Society, Rants on The Criminal Justice System, just plain good old fashioned Rants. There will be guests voicing their opinions from all walks of life. But remember, its only their opinion; they could be wrong !!

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The Tartan Con

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