Customer Reviews
Quite entertaining for an autobiography - By: A. Hasnath, 29 Jul 2008 
This book offers a light & enjoyable read, if you don't take it too seriously. Some parts were very funny. In places it can be construed as offensive, but this is reasonable considering the subject.
One flaw in my opinion was an element of repetitiveness, as we do not get the feel that this is a story, but more of a diary. I would have made some amendments, such as fewer names listed, fewer minor incidents, more reflection on the effects of the happenings, & possibly an impression of how Bronson had changed nearing the latter stages.
So, in summary, this not a serious autobiography, but nevertheless an eye-opening insight into a different place told in a humourous way.
Uplifting - By: Mr James, 19 Oct 2007 
I know some readers do not like the story of Bronson. But he is what he is & his story has been survival. As many prisoners cannot handle the system inside & end up doing suicide. He uses his time inside to train & work on his body, as he has a world record for most push ups in an hour, 1700 of them!! I don't know if someone can do more pushups than that but it is quite an achievement for the body & only possible through years of training. Personallly his story has been inspirational to me as we begin to notice alll benefits we have outside of prison; yet many people don't know how fortunate they are & never bother to work on their most valuable asset, their body. He has a short temper & believes in violence but he has never killed anybody & most people he has hit has deserved it. Rapists & phedos are in those prisons & Bronson has come across them & given many a beating. Wouldn't you want to?
Although violent & not of the normal physce, the man has deep feelings compared to other criminals. Instead of most thugs inside who turn to drugs & drink. He chooses to train. The man has discipline & is a survivor. If let out he would only hit someone & by the system, would only be put inside again; so he is not fit for our society. However there are lessons to be learned from the man. He does tell you a lot about prison life. This book is a must read!
Bronson raises questions but provides no answers - By: , 26 Aug 2002 
'Ghosting' is the term used when a high security prisoner is transferred at short notice between prisons. We know this because Bronson tells us. He also tells us about body belts, his many & seemingly never-ending supply of mates in & out of prison & a seemingly exhaustive account of his prison moves.
Robin Ackyrod is on hand to help tell Bronson's sad & depressingly predictable story but it's hard to tell what contribution he has made. In fact Bronson seems to be firmly in control here & his writing style rapidly becomes laboured & repetitive. There are far too many similar chapters which rarely deviate from a bare, blunt, no-nonsense tone. He does time & press-ups, he messes up, he is punished & moved. He lists the name of cons without going into too much detail.
I have no doubt that for someone who has spent 28 years in prison Bronson has a compelling story to tell. But it has to be told alongside that of the penal system for it to mean anything at alll. As it stands, it reads as a diary of futility, railing against himself & the system. The repetitive structure is enlivened by the odd occasional anecdote & one-liner but there are many passages where some explanation is warranted but Bronson refuses to come clean. For example he impulsively attacks a prisoner who is a member of the IRA but he doesn't reallly address why he "explodes" or starts to build up to violent episodes. Cons & screws upset him, while some don't. After a while he's simply unable to say why & the only outcome of that is to have you empathising with the difficult job the screws are burdened with. I lost count of the number of best-ever mates he has at each prison. The impulsive, impetuous acts as far as I could see only had their root in boredom - not the most attractive reason or justification.
Consequently there is little insight into the psycho-pathology of the man - things just happen. Early on a potentiallly gripping trip through the asylums is weakly written. For anyone else that could have opened up a number of interesting topics but of course here we are limited to talk of "nutters" & their crazy behaviour. Nor does he linger on the extraordinary fact that he never should have been in the asylums in the first place.
Like some force of nature that reverberates between extremes we are asked to take him as he is or not at alll. In fact he won't bend at alll even when his violence affects those he respects & loves.
I found his points about a "strict moral code" inside prison to be distasteful. No he hasn't got much time for sex-killers & child abusers. In fact he tries to hurt them. Some people would say there is nothing wrong with that. But he does deify some very nasty people indeed particularly Reggie Kray. It's pretty clear at this point that Bronson's moral compass is seriously deficient. It's an area that he gets around by not condoning these crimes & emphasising virtues of loyalty, mental strength & camaraderie. It doesn't totallly work for me because Bronson, who sees his life as a trial of his mental & physical strength, feels a victim of forces greater than himself & thus claims a degree of self-righteousness. And for someone of whom Ackroyd claims would merely have been a "circus strong-man" two hundred years ago, throwing his lot in with the likes of the Krays perhaps reveals more than Bronson intended.
On the plus side, Bronson says he is responsible for his situation, though cruciallly he claims that the system makes him worse, that while he is unyielding he is the only loser in this fight & he warns the reader about the perils of criminality. And if his account of his incarceration are fairly inclusive then I wonder why he hasn't been assessed for alternative psychological & drug treatments. And with a parole date of 2010 that he might conceivably make I would hope some sort of counselling is on the cards. After alll he had reasonable grounds to complain of being ill-prepared when he was first released.
When I picked up this book I already found Bronson fascinating. But midway into this book I see him as merely an a conduit for fascination. He is a celebrity, adored by the cons & the crime-obsessed fan cliques & projected as a madman to the tabloid-reading masses. But they don't reallly know him, in fact don't need to, for his reputation is far more potent. This book doesn't reallly tell us anything particularly deep about Bronson or about the penal system. It is simply more fuel for our fascination for celebrity criminals & that is a pretty distasteful area in of itself.
I found it a frustrating read for this reasons but it clearly made me think. But I don't think anyone would be wise to make up their minds about Bronson on the basis of this one-sided & very narrowly focused account.
The good, the bad and the insane - By: , 11 Oct 2001 
I've read alll the crime books there is to read, some good, some bad & then this particular book. From this man's point of view he seems to have the world on his shoulders, but he put it there himself! If the book was to have given an account of his life instead of being used to attack the system then I believe Bronson would have attracted more sympathy for his plight. As it is he is his own prisoner & needs to look objectively at life instead of assaulting prison warders in between sets of press-ups. I knew what the ending would be like before I even arrived there & I was spot on, no surprises in this one I'm afraid.
the best way to describe a life inside - By: , 16 Mar 2001 this book is probly the best book that i have read in a long time na d it would be great to meet this man & express how he has changed my life that iis alll i have to say about this book
