Inside stories from a prison book group

From The Hunger Games to Zadie Smith: a visit to HMP Thameside’s weekly event reveals just how powerfully books can bring people together

“Katniss is a bad-arsed bitch,” says Seamus, a library orderly at HMP Thameside, an all-male, category B prison in south-east London. “I like a strong-minded woman. She reminds me of my mother.”

Seamus is showing me around HMP Thameside’s library. As we walk, we talk books: he talks about The Hunger Games, reveals he is also a fan of Harry Potter. I ask him what he thinks of JK Rowling’s heroine. He grins, tells me he wants to call his daughter Hermione.

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