- Paperback : 370 pages
- ISBN-13 : 979-8553149208
- Dimensions : 5 x 0.93 x 8 inches
- Publisher : Notoir Books (October 25, 2020)
- Language: : English
It’s bad to have to endure ONE German prison during the early 1900s, and then write a book about the experience. But the writer of this book had to live through FOUR prisons. So in a way you have in your hands four books, all rolled into one.
At Notoir HQ we call that ‘a bargain’.
In this book you will read about fake executions, solitary confinement, tying prisoners to the stake, food- and sleep-deprivation, and a diverse and creative catalogue of actions to make people talk. This is the stuff you want to read about, instead of experiencing it.
Most of the scenes described here seem over the top and farfetched. However, there are no exaggerations whatever. As the writer writes: “Much of the most revolting detail has been eliminated for the simple reason that they are unprintable.”
Frederick Talbot knew he wasn’t going to a pick-nick, when he entered the Wesel prison. But what he had to live through, was worse than he imagined beforehand. Four prisons later, he decided to write a honest, unvarnished account about the whole ordeal.
In retrospect Talbot had to say the following: “It was whilst suffering the agonies of solitary confinement in the military prison of Wesel that I first decided to record my experiences so that readers might be able to glean some idea of the inner workings and the treatment meted out to our unfortunate compatriots who were travelling in Germany at the outbreak of war and who have since been interned.
From the moment of my decision I gathered all the information possible, determining at the first opportunity to escape to the Old Country. As will be seen I have to a degree been successful.”
The result is a raw account of life as an inmate in the German prison system at the beginning of the twentieth century.