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First edition copy of Darrell Figgis' Chronicle of Jails (1917), a record of his time spent in Irish, English, and Welsh prisons following the Easter Rising.

Figgis writes, 'Reading, being set in a dep valley at the confluence of two rivers, is an unhealthy town'. But he adds, 'The gaol is a handsome building, erected in red brick after the manner of an old castle, with battlements and towers'. He was astonished at the 'prodigality of flowers' within the Prison walls, noting that 'even the graves of hanged men could not be seen beneath the blooms that covered them'.

(Courtesy of University of Reading Special Collections)

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