From T-Bone (Letter 42)

T-Bone is a massively-built spiritual ex-Marine, who uses fighting skills to stop prison rape. T-Bone’s latest letter:

Here in supermax, some of the guards are decent people. They walk around with face shields because there are guys who throw human waste on them and each other, and some guys spit on them. This place is full of cell warriors, guys who talk and scream and yell at each other from their cells, which we are never allowed out of except to take showers.

There are times when the smells are nothing but human excrement from the open waste pond. It lasts for hours. The opposite of that stink is the smell of the officers food nuked in the microwave. Compared to the food they feed us, the smell of real food makes my mouth water and guys start asking the guards for some of whatever smells so good.

Cockroaches are everywhere. They come out night and day. They get into all of our stuff everything.

Supermax is tough, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail is a much bleaker place. I thought things would be smoother after the jail, but I ended up at Alhambra Unit – where Arizona Department of Corrections determine your custody level – in a cell with a crazy guy. He wouldn’t sit still or leave the guards alone, making comments about female officers. He was always yelling at people outside the cell, trying to make himself out to be tough, but it was all an act.


Some guys at Alhambra Unit were so scared senseless of prison and wanted to be protected that they said they were gay or started acting gay, so they wouldn’t go to the general population. There was so much fear and hate. People were lost in a sea of discouragement. There was nothing but sitting and waiting as we were being tested and watched.







Shaun Attwood  

My Mum and Dad Featured in Portuguese Rap Video



A Portuguese artist called SØS Silva O Sentinela with rapper Sam the Kid have made a video featuring my mum Barb Attwood and Dad Derick Attwood and Banged Up Abroad music that has gone viral with almost 400,000 views. "Silent Valley" the kid in the video - inspired by Raving Arizona - wants to be a writer versus his father who wants him to be a footballer.

Raving Arizona:



Shaun Attwood

Two Tonys Book Blurb

My draft blurb for the back cover of Two Tonys book is below. I welcome your thoughts and any suggested improvements. Would this blurb make you want to read the book?

As a Mafia associate, Two Tony’s job is to break an arm or a leg, bury bodies and plant bombs. He works for the Bonanno family, run by Sicilian-born Mafioso, Joe Bonanno, whose exploits inspired The Godfather.

In a dispute over cocaine distribution with The Brothers – a deadly biker gang – Two Tonys snuffs out rivals and anyone else who gets in his way, leaving a trail of corpses from Arizona to Alaska. On the run for mass murder, Two Tonys is pursued by bikers, the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang and homicide detectives who launch a nationwide manhunt.   

Click here for Chapter 1

Shaun Attwood

Chipping Campden Literature Festival.

Kids putting their hands up to ask questions at Chipping Campden School during my talk at the Chipping Campden Literature Festival. The 3rd pic is a Labour politician who served time for fraud, Denis MacShane. We did a joint event in the evening. In the heart of England, Chipping Campden is like a medieval mediterranean village. The author Kazuo Ishiguro lives next to the school.


Next Tuesday at 7PM I'm doing a school talk in Surrey which is open to the public and free to get in. It's at St John's School, Leatherhead​ which is 20 minutes away from Guildford. Anyone interested in attending must register here. 

Shaun Attwood