Prisoner Books Section

PRISONER CELL BLOCK H: BEHIND THE SCENES, Terry Bourke
The perfect example of how not to write a book about a TV show (It might have been a good idea to watch some of it first Terry - you know, just to get SOME of the facts right!). Terry Bourke really should know better, being a film director himself. This book has the most errors ever seen in a book ever, and almost anything in it should be taken with a pinch of salt. I cannot express my contempt enough for someone who writes a book knowing bugger all about the subject but knowing that desperate fans will buy it anyway. I know many other people who could write a much better book that would be worth paying for. Sadly ;) out of print now, but the whole text can be read on John Lenton's webpages, along with a list of the errors.

PRISONER CELL BLOCK H, Hilary Kingsley
A book about the show written by an English journalist - deals mostly with the early years as that was all that had been shown at the time of writing. Again, this book is out of print, and again the full text is available at John Lenton's webpages, again with a list of errors (although not as long for this book!)

THE SHOWDOWN, Richard Lane
A DANGEROUS AFFAIR, Betty Quin - Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
These are two novels based on the early years of the show, 'The Showdown' taking us up to about the first 20 episodes until Franky Doyle's death, and 'A Dangerous Affair' from the arrival of Sharon Gilmore to the release of Jacki Nolan.

PRISONER CELL BLOCK H - Murray Sinclair
THE FRANKY DOYLE STORY - Henry Clement
THE KAREN TRAVERS STORY - Maggie O'Shell
THE FRUSTRATIONS OF VERA - Michael Kerr
THE REIGN OF QUEEN BEA - Angela Michaels
THE TRIALS OF ERICA - Mary Carter
These other novels (6 in total) published by Pinnacle based on the show are out of print now, but by scouting round second hand bookshops you might just get lucky. I've got a spare copy of the first one if anyone wants to buy it from me - let me know! If anyone has a spare copy of 'The Frustrations of Vera' please tell me - it's the only one I haven't read yet and I would be willing to swap my copy of 'The Karen Travers Story' for it. They are a bit strange, as they are picked up and moved from Australia to the USA, but I think they're not a bad stab at how the characters might have ended up in Wentworth - at least the writers seem to actually have watched the series.