PRISON WAS MY PARISH. By the Reverend Baden P. H.
Ball, (Heinemann, 18s.) MR. BALL has led a dedicated and interesting life. Joining the Church Army, he testified from Hyde Park to Blackpool and from Waikaremoana to Dartmoor. He was at the Moor for eighteen years, first as assistant then, having taken orders, as Chaplain. His account of the mutiny is fascinating and there are many stories in his pleasant and readable book. An ex-music teacher, who had got into the habit of dropping dud cheques, was regu- larly sent to Dartmoor, where he always played the organ with distinction. After serving sen- tences totalling twenty-one years at the.Moor, he was sent to serve a sentence at a mere county jail. He was so aggrieved by this treat- ment that he gave up crime. In 1948 Mr. Ball became Chaplain at Wandsworth, when he sometimes had to minister to condemned men. His remarks about hanging and flogging are banal and question-begging, and would come more appropriately from a judge than a clergyman. Still it is easy to see what a strength he must have been to condemned, and other,
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