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Diary

Jonathan Aitken's diary: My life as a Christian outreach speaker

Plus: I have prison plans that will fatten the Treasury; Margaret Thatcher's saucy humour

26 October 2013

9:00 AM

26 October 2013

9:00 AM

The last time I wrote for The Spectator I was sitting in a prison cell. I sent the then editor a poem called ‘The Ballad of Belmarsh Gaol’. Instead of printing it in the poetry column, Frank Johnson put it on the magazine’s cover. It received what is euphemistically called ‘a mixed reception’ — so mixed that I have never again tried my hand at verse.

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