Peterhead Porridge
Tales from the Funny Side of Scotland’s Most Notorious Prison

James Crosbie

Category: Humour
Pub Date: June 2007
ISBN: 1 84502 152 5
Extent: 288 pp.
Price: £7.99
Format: Paperback, 197 x 127 mm



There’s nothing much that’s funny about a long stretch in Peterhead Prison – or is there? Behind the bars of one of the UK’s toughest jails, you’ll find the drugs, riots and fighting which make the headlines but, as the cons go about their daily routine, there’s also humour and stories aplenty as some of the hardest and most violent men in British crime do their time.

James Crosbie was Britain’s most wanted man in 1974. With a successful business and an enviable lifestyle, he seemed to have everything going for him – until he got bored with his life and turned to armed robbery. He ended up in Peterhead Prison, doing time with some of the hardest, and funniest, men in crime.

Peterhead Porridge is a remarkable account of the people he met. People like The Saughton Harrier who escaped from prison by dressing up as a runner, complete with running vest and number, and joining in as a race went by. And another escapee, Tweety Pie, was so-called because, when he flew the coop, he had a nasty case of jaundice. Then there’s Square Go, the prison warder who was always up for a fight. And discover the practical jokes that were the trademark of Glasgow’s Godfather Arthur Thompson and what really happened when someone poured their porridge over his head in the breakfast queue.

Funny, sad and at times barely believable, Peterhead Porridge is a unique insight into the other side of prison life.