This was such an interesting read. There are so many things about the British criminal justice system that I didn't know and I had to Google some things so that I could better understand. I was shocked by how relaxed Bronzefield was compared to American prison but also how horrible Bronzefield really is, especially about deaths. While this book was interesting, it felt very long winded and choppy. I was reading an e-version so I hope that there are paragraphs in the final edits.

Sophie, a young black woman is remanded in custody after being charged with GBH involving Police Officers. (she doesn't go into details of her crime) and is remanded in custody at HMP Bronzefield, the UK's largest women's prison.

The book is her experience of her time inside two women's prisons. She also shares facts and figures and her own thoughts on why prisons are failing on so many levels.

You can tell she's a fighter as due to a poor family situation she took it upon herself to organise her own education including attending a fee paying school on a scholarship. She's desperate to take her education further although any education for women falls short at both the prisons.

Like other prison books I've read you could really feel the tensions bubbling between the inmates and the inmates and prison officers. I must admit I was kind of surprised at some of the things she did to get attention even though she does state she'd never do these things on the outside. On leaving prison she rebuilds her life - starts studying for a degree and gets her own house. An interesting read.

The author is writing about her experiences in the penal system. She spent two years incarcerated, for a crime she never really explains (only that it was for Grievous Bodily Harm and Assaulting A Police Officer).
I have to state upfront, I really found myself actively disliking the author. In my career of over two decades working in Federal Prisons, I ran into many inmates of the author's type. Constantly manipulative, causing trouble, then whining that she was being picked on when she was caught. She even states, "I kind of approached prison life like a game at first - something not to be taken seriously".
Manipulative, such as when she "Growing even more desperate to have my revenge I grabbed a razor blade I had hidden inside my stack of court papers, and cut myself on the right forearm". Then, after she didn't get the reaction she wanted, threw a cup of sour milk into the nurse's face. And wrote on her cell wall, "Jeannie is a fat ugly c**t". What a wonderful person she is!
After one of her escapades, and she was placed in the Segregation Unit, she then brags about "I dragged my chair directly beneath the emergency buzzer and pressed it continuously for the next four hours". As if she was the only inmate in Seg, and deserved special treatment. Her sense of entitlement was maddening.
She details incidents where she poured shampoo over the head of an officer. She attempted to attack the "Governor's Governor" (similar to a Warden) during a disciplinary hearing, she would spit in Officer's faces.
She talks about providing a "blade" to another inmate in exchange for a phone.
She details her disgust with the Officers, the Doctors and Nurses, other inmates, her attorneys, even the Judges she has to deal with.
The author does discuss problems within the prison system. Mental health concerns, rogue Officer's, violent behavior, sexual assaults, etc. Her concerns just ring hollow when you take into consideration the source. She had an opportunity to write a helpful book to shine a light on these concerns, but wastes it with her petty, juvenile behaviors.
Rather than pin the blame for her problems on everyone else, the author needs to take a good long look at herself. Take responsibility for herself. Then maybe she will become a better agent for change.
Very disappointing!

A prison memoir unlike any I had previously read, Breakfast at Bronzefield by Sophie Campbell is an eye opening account of the daily grind of life behind the bars of not one but two women's prisons in Britain.
The book is a very candid account, not just of what day to day life was like for the author, but also of her family background and the struggles she faced to break out of that life and forge a better one for herself, including finding a way to pay for her own private schooling as a young teenager. The event that resulted in her imprisonment is only vaguely described , but she does tell us that it involved arrest for grievous bodily harm and assaulting a police officer, and that this was her first brush with the prison system. It is clear that she has done a lot of research into not only how the prison system works in the UK but also into numerous ways it could be improved
The description of prison life was certainly disturbing, from the bubbling tension between various groups of inmates to the routine use of violence against both other inmates and prison officers ,including several times where the author was personally involved. It is clear that she was determined to stand up for herself and her rights no matter what. I was particularly interested in the chapters describing the time the author spent on a Mental Health ward, not because of any medical issues but because of overcrowding, and the overuse of medicines she observed ,often simply to keep the women under control rather than from any intent to help them. It is very clear that she found the lack of educational opportunities frustrating, and I am inclined to agree with her given her descriptions of programmes that offered little beyond the most basic literacy skills , and nothing that would equip the women leaving prison for a working life, should they be fortunate enough to find an employer who was willing to hire an ex convict. I also found it shocking that so many former prisoners were released into homelessness, it is honestly something that I never thought about before, but reading this book certainly opened my eyes to the problem.
I found the blend of factual information with the author's personal account to be both educational and entertaining, I was gripped by the book and impressed by the author's candour.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This book is Sophie's memoirs of her time in Europe's largest women's prison and the start of her life upon release.
This was really interesting. The author is very honest and doesn't try to present herself as an angel. I liked how she's clearly done further research into the bigger picture and puts these statistics into her book.
I was saddened at how gender divided prison is with mens prison being allowed to look at courses such as coding - as a woman that codes it's such a ridiculous view that it's man's work. And men having better support and outcomes.
By far the most shocking is that reporting rape is not possible and all prisoners are forced into signing NDAs. I'm glad she ignored the NDA and kept this record!

This is the author’s first book, written about her time in prison after being arrested for Grievous Bodily Harm and assault on a police officer (GBH) in England. She finds herself in HMP Bronzefield, which is the biggest women’s prison in the UK. She shares just what it’s like to be female, a minority, and stuck in prison on remand while waiting for her case to come up. If you enjoy true biographies like this, you might want to check it out. I found it to be quite decently written, she tells it like it is without being overly gossipy. Explaining how she was seemingly expected to know how to get along and know the rules, even though it was her first time in. Like they didn’t believe her, even when she kept reminding them. They did finally assign someone to her for a short while to help her learn her way around, until she became adjusted a bit. It’s not like she wasn’t trying or was uneducated, as she had been to college.

It’s easy to forget about everything else when you pick the book up and start reading. You become engrossed in her world and what’s going on while she was inside and having to stick up for herself all the time. Often having to do crazy things to make a point that she won’t be pushed around, which often ended up with her losing privileges. Advanced electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley and author Sophie Campbell.

Having read other books in this genre, I was expecting something along a similar vein. Woman goes to prison and then repents - the usual story. But boy, was I wrong! I was shocked by the violence, the double-dealing, the level of coercion coming from both the officers and prisoners. It was not something I expected in a woman's prison, but the author seems to go out of her way to bust gender stereotypes.

On a positive note, I admired the way a lot of the women were determined to make a better life for themselves, with what seemed to be with very little support from the prison or their families. Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.


****SPOILER ALERT****

I was surprised when halfway through the book the action moves from HMP Bronzefield to HMP Downview, a prison for settled prisoners. It made for an interesting read as I could learn about life in two separate prisons, but unfortunately the situation for most women hardly improved regardless of what prison they were sent too

I was really hoping that this book would be a revealing insight into the largest women’s prison in the UK, but I don’t feel I learnt much more than I already knew from other accounts.
I felt that too much emphasis was put on the (quite underwhelming) authors crime and sentence, and that a lot of the book was based on her personal opinion, rather than fact.
She has obviously researched the statistics well and it is well written, but I felt it was a little too boring at times.
3 stars 🌟

Breakfast at Bronzefield is the story of "Sophie Campbell", a pseudonym , her experience in 2 Women's prisons and her efforts to rebuild her life afterwards. This book reminded me very much of Chris Atkins' similar insight as a prisoner in men's prison Wandsworth in his excellent book, "A bit of a Stretch". Like Atkins Sophie is eloquent , well-educated and the kind of person who never thought they'd ever end up inside. As she tells us though there's no such thing as a "typical prisoner" and many prisoners are well-educated and highly intelligent people.. Also like Atkins Sophie gives us the facts and figures to show that our prisons are failing to do anything to rehabilitate inmates or give them any kind of help or education that will allow them seamless integration back into society. I was shocked to read that in the 21st century some prisoners are handed tents and sleeping bags on their release ,I suppose that just about scrapes into following a duty of care but it's still a damning indictment of our society as a whole and reading about one unfortunate who found herself back in prison after being caught sleeping in a park in one of those tents would be funny if wasn't so tragic for the lady concerned.
Sophie is quite scathing about the standard of Prison Staff and I was reminded of a conversation I once had with a female Warder who told me, "they'll take anyone,they're desperate",
Sophie seems to spend most of her time in prison causing mayhem and then complaining that its everyone else's fault and I found myself trying to get around the fact that she was denying being a violent person outside of prison while smashing TVs and constantly kicking off inside. As she says though,prison is a whole new world and if you don't make yourself someone others won't mess with you'll get eaten alive. and she'd never behave that way "on the outside".
This is an honest book and I'll be just as honest and say that at time she doesn't come across as a very nice person, then when she's told more of her life story we see that she's a survivor and as I know myself sometimes to survive you have to forget nice to keep your head above water. I finished it with a massive respect for Sophie and in awe of her work ethic as she determinedly made the life she always wanted for herself against the odds . Sophie gets angry at times but at no point does self-pity enter the story and the book points out several important instances of how the prison and probation services and other so-called support services badly let down those in their care . Sophie is a strong.motivated and highly intelligent woman,not all prisoners have those advantages and the help they get is minimal .

Thanks to Sophie Campbell and Netgalley for the ARC of a thought-provoking book in return for an honest review.

I want to thank NetGalley, Sophie Campbell Books, and author Sophie Campbell for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

What an enlightening read, and a brave writer to boot! In Breakfast at Bronzefield, we follow Sophie throughout her stay at HMP Bronzefield, the UK’s largest women’s prison. I was drawn to this book by the cover (I know, I know, don’t judge a book by it’s cover). I love that it’s pink and gold, when it’s actually about a prison. There’s beauty to be seen there. This is a gritty read, and I love that the author didn’t hold anything back. These types of things are what NEED to be revealed. Puts you in mind of OITNB, but in my opinion even better. This is a super powerful read, and I recommend it to anyone.

Thank you again to those named above for the opportunity to read and review this novel!

The author (I’ll call her Sophie, though the Author’s Note seems to make it clear that this is a pseudonym used to protect her identity) is a young black woman who, after an incident she doesn’t describe, finds herself remanded in custody in Britain’s largest female prison. In fact, in total her stay in prison was to last some two years, divided between two separate facilities, and her account of that time is presented in this book. Her experiences are comprehensively and, I believe, very honestly documented and along side this she provides her own analysis of the shortfalls evident in our current prison system, supported by data obtained from a variety of sources.

Sophie grew up in the north of England. She makes it very clear that her father was a violent criminal and both he and her mother practiced substance abuse. In fact from the age of thirteen she’d taken it into her own hands to organise her schooling and subsequently became estranged from pretty much all of her family. She completed a good education (including time at a fee paying school, thanks to a scholarship award) and spent time in a decent if low paying job. And though she doesn’t provide details of the offence that led to her eventual jail sentence she does disclose that it involved a charge of Grievous Bodily Harm (a term used in English law to describe the severest form of assault) and also that of assaulting a police officer.

The broader descriptions of prison life didn’t throw up too many major surprises: it’s predictably grim, with poor food and constant bubbling tensions between inmates and with prison staff. Sophie openly discloses how she used tantrums and physical violence to achieve small wins with prison officers and settle grievances with fellow inmates. She was no saint, and she’s honest enough to admit that. Some elements that were rather more unexpected include the limited opportunities given to inmates to allow or encourage personal development and the almost negligible support provided to prisoners as they prepared for release and afterwards, when they found themselves once more back in the big wide world. Many, it seems, are sent on their way with little help, virtually no money and nowhere to live.

This is a gritty, no holds barred account and once I’d settled into it I found it compelling reading. If I were to offer a small criticism it would be that the desire to provide insight into the deficiencies of the system (and indeed recommendations for its improvement) rather got in the way of what could otherwise have been a flowing and cohesive narrative. But that’s a minor quibble and I quite understand her motivation for including this element. And though I find it hard to accept that Sophie’s behaviour whilst in prison was in any way tolerable I do very much admire her honesty, her tenacity and her drive. Through her own self motivation she’s managed to complete an education, survive a family group that would have sunk most people and despite a few false steps along the way put herself in a position to complete a university degree (she’s close to that stage as the book is published) and hopefully lead a rewarding and fruitful life. No small achievement!

Sophie's memoir is a comprehensive account of her time in prison and provides an insider's point of view of the vast improvements needed to reform a clearly tired system which are backed up by facts and statistics

It's hard not to commend her achievements and admire her tenacity and strength which we could all learn from.

Even though I found the narrative hard to follow at times, I do think it is an important book that needs to be read by all who would like to gain an understanding of a marginalised, often overlooked part of society.