Wikipedia – Lively Upper Class Prisoner …

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May 14

"The writer ... gives his view on Penal Servitude in a manner which proves effectually that he is a thoughtful and observant man. The early chapters take the form of an apologia, but we are not concerned here with the justice or injustice of his sentence.
The book is an honest attempt to ameliorate the condition of prisoners and it is as readable as it is well-intentioned. Humanitarianism has done a great deal already. but some of the reforms suggested by W.B.N. seem feasible and would probably do more good than harm. He suggests, for instance, that the period of solitary confinement should be curtailed and he remarks with no little justice that "many of the capital cases show outrageous inequality and justice."
It is pleasing to notice, that on the whole, he has nothing but praise for the officials who are responsible for prison discipline. The book is singularly free of all exaggerations or accounts of prison horrors so frequently inserted to make a work more saleable. W.B.N. writes calmly and almost judiciously, and at the sametime (sic) his writing is more interesting than many novels". Englishman's Overland Mail 30 April 1903"
When he was transferred to Parkhurst he had to begin with nine months' separate confinement – one hour a day exercise and the other 23 hours alone in his cell. He wrote of this: The solitude and hopeless monotony, without anything to think of but the long years of suffering and disgrace ahead, produces nervous irritation, approaching in some cases a frenzy, and instead of softening a man, brings out all the evil there is in him.
It was stated that the book yielded ... about £300 (equivalent to £32,446 in 2020), which went to creditors. The Scotsman, 15 May 1939.
"Lord William likened seven weeks in Wormwood Scrubs to seven years, and declared that if he had not been visited by a priest at the critical moment he would have smashed everything in the cell. He thought that solitary confinement brought out all the evil in a man. He was a model prisoner and never incurred a penalty". Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 20 May 1939.