Peter J. M. Wayne
Hidden Agendas: Politics, Law and Disorder (Hamish Hamilton, £20), Derek Lewis's insider account of his ill-fated time as Director General of the Prison Service, is a must for all students of government. Osten- sibly a serious experimental document, his polemic chronicles such a farcical tale of internecine squabblings and incompe- tence that I have no hesitation in recom- mending it as one of the most (unintentionally) comical books of the year. From the other side of the bars comes Hugh Collins's gritty Kelmanesque mono- logue of incarceration, Autobiography of a Murderer (Macmillan, £15.99), a book which Messrs Howard, Lewis and Straw would do well to read and absorb over the Christmas holidays if they are ever to understand the real machinations of our crumbling penal estate. But without doubt the most disturbing book was Blake Morri- son's As If (Granta, £14.99), a highly poeti- cal meditation on the killing of James Bulger which deviates into some uncom- fortable moral territory. It left me with a distinctly acrid aftertaste.
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