Inside Belmarsh: Banged Up in Britain's Toughest Prison

by Jonathan Levi, Emma French

THE NEXT BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING INSIDE... PRISON SERIES

Following on from the bestselling Inside Broadmoor and Inside Wakefield, Jonathan Levi and Emma French will deploy their trademark combination of exclusive access to prisoner testimony and staff revelations, weaving a compelling, unfiltered story examining the lives and crimes of Belmarsh Prison's most deadly and notorious prisoners.

From exclusive revelations of the Hatton Garden gang, who smarted at the injustice of doing time alongside monstrous killers, to unique insights on inmates past and present including John Warboys, Ian Huntley, Jonathan Aitken, Michael Adebowale, Thomas Mair and Wayne Couzens. No prisoner has ever escaped...but some have certainly tried.

Through fights, drugs, gangs and, sometimes, redemption, Emma and Jonathan will discover the truth about what it's like to live and work in 'Hellmarsh', Britain's toughest and most renowned prison.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published November 18, 2025

About the author

Músico, periodista, escritor y productor. Es cofundador de una de las revistas literarias más reconocidas de Norteamérica: Granta. Ha publicado artículos y reseñas de libros en grandes publicaciones como The New York Times y Los Angeles Times. Ha trabajado escrito y dirigido obras de teatro y óperas. También trabajó con The Metropolitan Opera Guild y el Kennedy Center. «Septimania» es su regreso a la literatura después de un poco más de veinte años.

Reviews

[Beca Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

[***3.5 STARS***]

After reading 'Orange is the New Black' I immediately wanted to read a book on UK prisons, so went down to The Works and grabbed this - it didn't quite hit the mark on what I was expecting.

Although this book does offer insight into the prison systems within the UK, it felt like there was little to no input from the authors and this book was just a jumbled collection of accounts of those who have been to, or worked within Belmarsh.

From the cover and the blurb, I was expecting more individual stories from inside the jail, but instead this book focussed too heavily on minor details about the prison system in general, and didn't quite hit the mark from me - this may be my fault for not just picking up a memoir of someone who has been to prison in the UK (like the US counterpart I had just finished).

That being said, this does offer some thought-provoking questions and insightful opinions on the prison system within the UK, and I am up for giving the Broadmoor version a go - I just wish that there had been more structure within the book as a whole.

[Lara Mewett · Rating 3 out of 5]

INSIDE BELMARSH ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🫢I’ll admit, this book didn’t captivate me from start to finish. That said, several chapters offered fascinating insights into the world of HMP Belmarsh.

⭐️Many infamous cases I’d read about before are covered, along with others that were entirely new to me. Either way, it’s a stark reminder not to commit crime and proof that Belmarsh lives up to its nickname, “Hellmarsh.”

💬One of my favourite aspects was the range of perspectives, sometimes clashing, sometimes aligned, from governors, KCs, former officers, and ex-inmates.

📚The book opens with a compelling glossary of prison terms, some familiar, others new to me (though I can’t imagine they’ll make it into my everyday vocabulary). Look up “potting” for an eye-opener.

⚠️Trigger warnings apply throughout, as the book deals with cases involving high levels of violence, sexual violence, offences against children, and numerous terrorism cases.

[James Tidd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third instalment of the Inside series by Jonathan Levi and Emma French. The previous two were Inside Broadmoor and Inside Wakefield. The authors use their trademark combination of exclusive access to prisoner and officer testimony, to weave a compelling story that examines the lives and crimes of Belmarsh's most notorious prisoners.

Inside Belmarsh offers unique insights on inmates past and present, including Jonathan Aitken, the Hatton Garden gang, Abu Hamza and Wayne Couzens.

Through attacks, drugs, gangs and sometimes redemption, Levi and French reveal the truth about the prison, Britain's toughest, not known as 'Hellmarsh' for nothing.

[Ken Sampson · Rating 2 out of 5]

[19 Aug 2025] I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was very disappointed. There is some interesting information in this book, but it is a poor read. The syntax is mangled, with poor sentence construction and the prose is silted. For instance, the use of the technique whereby the authors paraphrases the comments of a contributor and then immediately follows it with the said comments - often word for word - makes for dull repetitive reading. There is a feel of incredulity at the security arrangements, which is surprising when describing a maximum security prison and there is also a sense of disbelief in the techniques of management used, such as isolation and a questioning of the perceived lack of rehabilitation - all of which seems remarkably naive when describing some of Britain's most evil, dangerous, psychopathic and persistently violent criminals.

The day to day life is not really brought out, the admission rate, the numbers incarcerated, the staffing levels, policies and procedures, the recidivism rate, the outcomes, all ignored. Toward the end the authors appear to run out of steam and lose their way and just produces a list of prisoners who have been at Belmarsh. Telling us about them, not the prison and going off their subject for pages at a time. I am sorry to say that this book appears to have been written in a hurry, received no copy editing and had insufficient research, resulting in too much padding. It was turgid, a poor read and not enjoyable. I won't be rushing to read others in this series.

[Nicola Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

just like the others, not the best written, with some mistakes, but interesting none the less and a really good insight into how prison systems work

[Sarahm · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh.

[Claire Noble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting insight into a high security prison