Curious Mr Howard

Tessa West (1943-2024) worked in prisons and on prison-related matters for many years and held two master's degrees. When teaching literacy she won a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship which enabled her to study prison education in Scandinavia. While head of a prison education department she was awarded a Cropwood Fellowship at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge. After a period as an assistant governor in a contracted-out prison, she worked for the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Department in Vienna. She then served two three-year terms as an independent member of the Parole Board. She visited prisons in countries as diverse as Zambia, Hungary and New Zealand. In respect of The Curious Mr Howard she was given the Arthur Welton Award which enabled her to carry out research in Ukraine, where John Howard lived during the last years of his life and died. She is the author of Prisons of Promise (Waterside Press, 1997) and several novels.

'Impeccably researched and fascinating'-- The Howard Journal'No-one who reads this wonderful book could dispute that Howard ranks among the most interesting people of his age'-- Times Literary Supplement.'A brilliant book'-- Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons'A riveting account of the great penal reformer, this humane, obsessive, guilt-ridden, lonely dissenter, indeed the "curious Mr Howard"'-- Guardian'Highly readable ... has much to commend it'-- The BEARR Trust Newsletter'An excellent account, well worth reading. Recommended'-- Bedford Architectural Archaeological & Local History Society'A remarkable book about a remarkable man'-- Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC.

• Foreword by Clive Stafford Smith; Preface; Timeline; Introduction. 1. Finding His Way; 2. The Young Adult; 3. Domesticity at Cardington; 4. Jack and Restlessness; 5. On the Road; 6. Home, Shrievalty and Prisons; 7. Researching and Travelling; 8. Howard in the House; 9. The State of the Prisons; 10. Foreign Prisons and Hospitals; 11. Prisoners-of-War; Scottish and Irish Prisons; Hulks; Gaol-Fever, etc.; 12. The Writer, Editor, Publisher and Penitentiary Superintendent; 13. More about Jack, More prisons and More Anecdotes; 14. Lazarettos and the Plague; 15. Back to Cardington; 16. The Last Journey; 17. Howard's Funeral and Beyond; 18. Tributes; 19. The Legacy; A Last Look. Bibliography. Index.