Inside Broadmoor: Up Close and Personal with Britain's Most Dangerous Criminals

by Jonathan Levi, Emma French, Kari Jenkinson (Narrator)

'There is time and then there is Broadmoor time'

Broadmoor. Few places in the world have a name with such chilling resonance. For over 150 years, it has contained the UK's most violent, dangerous and psychopathic.

Since opening as an asylum for the criminally insane in 1863 it has housed the perpetrators of many of the most shocking crimes in history; including Jack the Ripper suspect James Kelly, serial killers Peter Sutcliffe, John Straffen and Kenneth Erskine, armed robber Charles Bronson, gangster Ronnie Kray, and cannibal Peter Bryan.

The truth about what goes on behind the Victorian walls of the high security hospital has largely remained a mystery, but now with unprecedented access, TV journalist Jonathan Levi and cultural historian Emma French paint a vivid picture of life at Bradmoor, after nearly a decade observing and speaking to those on the inside.

Including interviews with the staff, its experts and the patients themselves, "Inside Broadmoor" is the most comprehensive study of the institution to-date.

Published at the dawn of a new era for the hospital, this is the full story of Broadmoor's past, present, and future and a dark but enlightening journey into the minds of Britain's most dangerous and how they are treated.

©2019 Jonathan Levi and Emma French (P)2019 Bonnier Books UK

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, Audiobook, Psychology, History, Mental Health

Audible Audio

First published August 8, 2019

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

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is written with the immediacy of journalism and explores aspects of Broadmoor (and the other two secure mental hospitals for the criminally insane, Rampton and Ashworth) that the average UK reader would be familiar with and interested in, which is probably why they, like me, would be reading the book. There are also some interesting philosophical arguments.

Muslims now make up a significant portion of the Broadmoor patient population. In the 1980s there were a number of IRA patients. Does mental illness follow trends in society, or do societal trends drive the definition of mental illness? Practice development nurse Pat McKee noted that the age demographic has radically altered. Most admissions now are ‘early to mid-twenties or thirties. There are lots more angry, young, violent men. Yes, there’s an increase in jihadis now, but there used to be Irish terrorists in the seventies and eighties.’

And about religion,

‘We have the majority of patients having no religion at all, but some patients identify as Christians and then we have a steady trickle of people converting to Islam. As part, they would say, of turning over a new leaf. It is rare to have people from the Jewish faith and very rare to have anyone Chinese. They are not in prison either. There is a big UK Chinese community. Some of them must be mad. Some of them must be breaking the rules but they don’t find their way into the system. It is a mystery.’

'In other words, do certain ethnic groups or social strata suffer from mental illness far less than others, or are other factors at play in diagnosis and admissions decisions?'

Some of the high-profile patients are well-known, but the stories here are not. Jimmy Saville's great friendship with the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, for instance, as well as the depth of his involvement and power, including directing policy, at Broadmoor. His interfering with patients and female nurses continued until he was not allowed keys to the wards, then he abruptly ceased all activities with Broadmoor.

There are 700 staff at Broadmoor for 200 patients. They aim to rehabilitate them through medications and therapy, to get them to see the terrible crimes they committed were the result of illness - or personality disorders, which are much harder to treat - not in order to release these violent people, mostly murderers as well as other crimes they committed, into society, but to send them to prison. Since it cost GBP#300,000 a year to treat a patient in the hospital, when they become well enough, psychologically-speaking, to not be a danger to themselves or to anyone else, it obviously makes sense to move them to a prison population.

In the US in many states, this issue doesn't exist. Serial killers, rapists, paedophile murderers get the death penalty. Given the attitude of other prisoners in the UK and US towards these types of offenders, I'm not sure that many of them wouldn't prefer it to the protracted hell of a full life sentence under those conditions. But those that do, top themselves, and those that don't make a life for themselves for decades in death row where they have few privileges but few threats either.

Ian Brady, 'the Moors Murderer' who was diagnosed as a narcissistic, psychopathic sex offender, and Peter Sutcliffe both objected to being moved to prison. There was no treatment possible for Brady and Sutcliffe was, since he had been blinded by another prisoner, unlikely to harm anyone since his targets were always women anyway. They objected because they wouldn't have rooms, art, craft and music workshops and all the benefits of being in a hospital, albeit under a secure locked-door regime, but faced with the greater deprivation of such treatment in prison as well threats to their own lives.

I enjoyed the book, it was quite a light read despite the subject matter. I like the way it is written in a journalistic, chatty style, just like the tv documentary it was based on.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mental health is something I enjoy learning about, and for the most part, I find it fascinating. I have read books about Broadmoor before, but not for a while, and I found this particular book was about the backbone of Broadmoor and the way in which it is ran, and not so much about the notorious patients that have stayed there.

There were some interesting snippets of information in here, and some things, I actually didn't know about, such as, when Broadmoor first opened, it housed around 90 women that were suffering with postnatal depression, and the majority of those women, had killed their babies.

Random facts about past patients were scattered throughout the book, which was fine, but then, I think in order to bulk out the book a bit, information was repeated, and this became tiresome.

I think the distinct change in attitude and also care towards patients over the years is very interesting, and to be honest, it's the best way in order to try to rehabilitate these individuals.

[Trina Inwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful, sensationalist tripe. Reads like it’s been written by a 12 year old.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting information in this book but terribly written and in need of some ruthless editing.

[Danielle Beaumont · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so difficult to read I ended up ditching it two thirds of the way through. It is so repetitive and clumsy in the way that is it written. An example being where religion is being discussed and ‘Chinese’ is eluded to as a religion. There’s also a paragraph about one third of the way through the book where one word is used about seven times as if the authors have a very limited vocabulary. I did understand that a lot of text was quoted directly from interviewees, but a more talented writer could have paraphrased to include all the facts with the book being bearable to read. It deserves one star for the introduction, which was intriguing and drew me in. I was really disappointed but so glad I didn’t pay for this (picked it up for free in a hotel room).

[Lee Peckover · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did they accidentally publish the first draft? It is a complete book, but with so much repetition and so much clumsy writing it's hard to believe this has been reread let alone edited or proofread. The subject matter and content could have made for a good book, instead, this is an interesting draft in need of substantial revisions.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting and well structured non fiction book about Broadmoor.

I didn't really know much about Broadmoor going into this book. But I'm really glad I did decide to give it a read because a lot of what I thought I knew about Broadmoor was based on inaccurate stereotypes which this book addresses and corrects.

I really liked how this book was structured. There was lots of chapters which each dealt with a different topics like the types of wards, treatments and scandals etc.

The writing is very basic and straight to the point, which didn't really bother me but might annoy some.

I thought this book was very interesting, I learnt a lot and clearly a lot of time has gone into the research of this book.

Overall, this was a very interesting book which I would highly recommend if you are interested in Broadmoor.

TW: graphic and frequent discussions of murder, violence, rape, abuse, suicide, child abuse, pedophilia and self harm

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easily digestible read covering life inside one of the most infamous buildings in the UK. The authors sensitively cover issues such as its history, patients and the dedicated staff.

While this wasn’t a massively detailed book, I did enjoy it and felt like it was best suited for those who are intrigued by crime and psychology without necessarily including any graphic details.

A worthwhile read for those intrigued by the famous Broadmoor hospital.

[Faye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read: Dec 26th 2021 - Jan 2nd 2022
Rating: DNF at 31%

[JenLko · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title is a lie. The book is far more focused on Broadmoor as a hospital, as in the literal building, rather than the residents themselves. I mean, the authors actually got into Broadmoor, spoke to some criminals and thought, nah! let's spend 99.9% of this book detailing how many wards there are and fat-shaming heavily medicated prisoners with complex mental health problems! also throw in some Jimmy Saville, but make it as detailed as a Wikipedia entry and call it a day!

[Kay Cairns · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this very much. I felt it was quite repetitive in places and focused too much on process rather than the experience of the inmates. "Up Close and Personal" is rather misleading.

[Leanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's no other way to say it - this book is bad. Badly written and monotonous and repetitive.

I feel like I should have just watched the ITV documentary (that was referred to incessantly) and saved myself the time and effort

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this audio book it was well researched and the person reading it was great.
It didn't hold back on some of the gruesome crimes the inmates have done.
Throughly enjoyed it.

[kerry lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the infamous Broadmoor prison and its infamous inmates. Including interviews from prisoners and workers from the prison, it was a very interesting read in the true crime genre.

[Terri Stokes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I was fully expecting with this book when blazed across the front is the words, 'Up close and personal with Britain's most dangerous criminals.' I mean, you get a small insight in to some of Britain's criminals, but I found that it mainly details the history of Broadmoor, not that I'm complaining as I found it rather compelling and interesting to see some of the history of the Victorian building.
But the information the authors do add in to the book about the criminals is just as interesting as well. Well written and easy to read, practically read the whole thing in one go.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible writing, repeating the same lines in a different order over and over is a student way of upping the word count and that’s what this book felt like, an extra long report by an inexperienced journalist or writer. Awful grammar problems throughout and obviously no proofreading or editing........
Which is a shame because there are some very interesting historical facts and some definite research has been done. It just doesn’t translate. Constant reference to a TV programme and what one or other of the authors had done was also confusing. Not an easy subject and not well done.

[Susan Elliman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The books content is interesting however it is so frustrating to read. It has typos, its repetitive, makes constant refence to the documentary that was filmed at broadmoor. Its generally put together badly, which is a shame as i had high hopes for this book. Im just glad i didnt pay full price for it

[Staceywh_17 · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off there were 294 pages & NOT 320 as stated here, I found NO spelling mistakes or poor English. What I did find was an absolutely fascinating book on Broadmoor, how it runs & who it houses. Didn't realise that Jimmy Savile at one point actually had his own keys to the prison. I would love to work in such a high profile place as this once I have my mental health nursing qualification.

[Ashling W · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible writing, great research. Pity

[Ruthy lavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative.

[The_5ft_reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what I was expecting, I thought as suggested I'd get more abouts the inmates and while there is some stories here, the book is mainly about the building and hiw it's run! interesting insights, just not what I expected!

[Weronika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Książka mocno nierówna. Jak pierwsze rozdziały były ciekawe i zajmujące, tam im dalej tym coraz bardziej wszystkie informacje się powtarzały. I już sama nie wiedziałam czy autorzy chcą ten szpital chwalić czy go ganić.

[Raveena Dhadwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, super interesting. I skipped one chapter about the staff because it wasn’t gripping me, but it’s easy to pick and choose what chapters interest you. If you’re a true crime fan it’s definitely a good one, although you do end up googling every name that comes up because there’s just not quite enough details about their crimes to satisfy you! Every day I looked forward to reading it and would recommend! Learnt a lot without straining my brain too much!

[Emily T · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️
I didn’t think this book was particularly well written. The documentary on which it is somewhat based is much better. An interesting subject matter but with only a few chapters of interesting content for me.

[Eloise Mohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and read it quite quickly. Working in Mental Health services myself, the information about the progression of services over the years is really fascinating to me.

I love the emphasis on rehabilitation and care in this book. There's so much media input into what Broadmoor is, and how it is just a 'cushy home for monsters', which shapes the publics views and tarnishes everyone who may one day be released from here with the same brush. However, it's also the home to severely ill people and prolific self-harmers.

Some of the facts and figures are astonishing, but it definitely shows that mental health care is moving in the right direction.

My only criticism is that parts of the book were a bit repetitive, however I still highly recommend it to anyone interested in Forensic mental health.

[nikola_kowalska · Rating 3 out of 5]

W moim przypadku był to reportaż poświęcony najsłynniejszymi szpitalowi psychiatrycznemu na świecie- Broadmoor.

To pierwsza w moim życiu książka, w której zaznaczyłam coś markerami. Jeden z opisów, których zaznaczyłam podrzucam Wam w kolejnym zdjęciu.

Przeraziła mnie ta książka i uświadomiła, że wielu seryjnych morderców cierpi na zaburzenia i choroby psychiczne. Wiadomo nie usprawiedliwia to zbrodni, które popełnili.

W Broadmoor przebywa między innymi rozpruwacz z Yorkshire. Pracownicy tego szpitala codziennie mierzą się z ogromnym wyzwaniem. Czasami w wyniku ataków pensjonariuszy pracownicy zostają ranni.

Boimy się szpitali psychiatrycznych, chociaż ich zadaniem jest pomoc drugiemu człowiekowi.

Broadmoor bez wątpienia jest miejscem przerażającym, przebywają w nim bardzo niebezpieczni mordercy. Jeden z rozdziałów, tej książki poświęcony jest na bezpieczeństwo mieszkańców okolic tego szpitala.

To naprawdę była przerażająca i wstrząsająca lektura. Na pewno nie nada się dla każdego. Od razu mówię, że z tej książki, za dużo o mordercach typowo się nie dowiecie. Nie poznacie ich rozbudowanych historii i leczenia.

W tej książce raczej skupiacie się na funkcjonowaniu Broadmoor, jak żyją tam pacjenci, jak pracownicy, co jest zabronione. Oczywiście wspomniane jest o pensjonariuszach, którzy są tam leczeni.

Poznajemy kilka historii, poznajemy przeszłość kilku morderców, ich zachowanie, na jakie zaburzenia chorują.

Nie jest to książka typowo poświęcona mordercom!
Muszę to tutaj podkreślić, bo gdzieś przeczytałam, ze ktoś się rozczarował, ponieważ myślał, ze właśnie taka będzie!

We współpracy z @wydawnictwoczarnaowca

[Abi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing in places but as someone who knew nothing about the institution this was very informative!

[Markus Parkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a difficult one to rate, this. Found some of the insight into the actual hospital itself incredibly interesting and fascinating.
However, I didn’t feel ‘up close and personal’ with some of the hospitals most notorious patients as the description led me to believe I would be, and really did feel at times like I was reading the same stuff over and over, particularly towards the end.
Also, grammatical errors in a book are just unforgivable.

[Bex · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a lot of previous comments have established, this book was quite poorly written, which massively affected the readability. It was quite sensationalist at times, and often skipped from topic to topic. This made it hard to follow, but also left some key topics without adequate exploration. It felt much like a recounting of sensationalist events from Broadmoor's history than opposed to anything else, and I was constantly left wanting to know and find out more. There were some times when I really liked the points it was making- for example, explaining how/why Broadmoor's residents are vulnerable, at least briefly exploring the often horrendous childhoods of some of the patients, and talking about rehabilitation- but at other times I really hated it; notably, the comments from Gwen about Saville, and her not believing the victims at Broadmoor. I know these aren't necessarily the views of the authors, but they were included without any critique. Furthermore, I don't think it was properly established or explored that the Broadmoor patients are, more than anything, patients.

I don't think it's an absolutely irredeemable book, because it did at least give me lots of further things to look into, and as a pop culture book it did at least somewhat present a side to Broadmoor that I don't think is often considered. However, overall, it actually really let me down.

[Abbie Collinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the facts throughout this book and learning how a hospital had so much history from the time they opened to present day and they various types of patients they’ve had