Archer smuggled book out of Suffolk jail

DISGRACED peer Jeffrey Archer used fellow inmates at Hollesley Bay to smuggle the manuscript of his Prison Diary book to Ipswich, he has revealed.

Lord Archer spent the last nine months of his prison sentence at the Suffolk jail before he was released in July last year.

It is mentioned in the third volume of his prison diary which has just been published.

Most of the diary is devoted to his time at the North Sea Camp open prison near Boston in Lincolnshire.

There is also a section devoted to his time in Lincoln jail where he was sent for a month as punishment for visiting the home of ex-Tory minister Gillian Shephard while on a home visit.

But there are only four pages devoted to the last part of his sentence in Suffolk.

In that Lord Archer confirms he was offered a job at the Genesis project in Ipswich - as revealed in the Evening Star - but that the Hollesley governor prevented him from taking it up.

During his time at Hollesley, the second volume of his prison diary was being prepared for publication.

It eventually came out a few days after his release from the jail.

Lord Archer worked in the prison library at Hollesley - and that gave him time to edit the diary.

"I had it smuggled out on a weekly basis by a prisoner who was working in Ipswich," he reveals.

"But even that demanding exercise did not fully occupy my time."

Lord Archer suggests a number of changes to how the Home Office treats prisoners - but the book records that current Home Secretary David Blunkett took a personal interest in his case and believed he had taken liberties with the system.

Was Lord Archer right to publish his prison diaries? Will you read them? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk