The unforgettable story of how a damaged childhood led to a damaging adulthood, and how compassion and understanding have the power to rehabilitate.

Erwin James lost his mother when he was seven. Shipped from home to home after his father turned to alcohol and violence, he committed his first crime of breaking and entering when he was ten. His petty crime turned increasingly violent, culminating in his convictions for murder, for which he was jailed for life at the age of 27. Entering prison, James struggled to come to terms with the enormity of his crimes and a future without purpose or hope. Then he met Joan, a prison psychologist, who helped him to confront the painful truth of his past, and to understand how it had shaped him from such a young age. Her sessions transformed his life. Encouraged to read and to educate himself, over the next twenty years Erwin James would go on to receive a BA in History, and become a regular columnist for the Guardian. This is a book that offers no excuses – only the need to understand how we become who we become, and shows that no matter how far a person may fall, redemption is possible with the right kind of help. ________________________ ‘Honest and Compelling’ – Martina Cole ‘James shows in a brutally honest memoir how someone can be saved’ - Guardian ‘Beautifully written, shocking and provocative’ – Herald ‘A powerful and illuminating description of real life behind bars that stays in your mind long after you put the book down’ – Daily Express

"Compelling" - Sunday Times

"A powerful and illuminating description of real life behind bars that stays in your mind long after you put the book down" - Daily Express

"Compelling and intelligent prose on life inside" - Daily Telegraph

"Beautifully written, shocking and provocative" - Herald

"An extraordinary portrayal of life in a British prison" - Daily Mail on A Life Inside: A Prisoner’s Notebook

"What does it say about a man who has done almost twenty years in prison that his writing should be marked by such humanity, compassion and wisdom? Never pleading for himself or pitching for our pity, Erwin James's account of life inside is fascinating not just for its portrait of a harsh and secret world but because in the author we are introduced to a man of rare self-awareness, strength and intelligence" - Ronan Bennett on The Home Stretch: From Prison to Parole

"James shows how precarious his rehabilitation was … As James shows, a focus on prison as a site of punishment may offer some comfort for victims and the more carceral-minded facets of society but rebuilding prisoners returns them to society as functional people and gives them the emotional intelligence to understand fully the scale and effects of their crimes" - New Humanist

"It’s been a vintage year for political memoirs, but the most memorable book I have read this year is Redeemable by Erwin James, who served 20 years for his part in two murders and who clawed his way back from a very low place lead a useful and productive life " - Observer, 'Book of the Year'

"James shows in a brutally honest memoir how someone can be saved" - Guardian 'Readers' Books of the Year