When Chris Atkins was sentenced to five years in prison for tax fraud in 2016, he never imagined that his time behind bars would lead to a thriving writing career. Locked up in HMP Wandsworth, one of the UK’s most notoriously chaotic and overcrowded prisons, Atkins found solace in books—and, eventually, in writing his own story.
Struggling to cope with the harsh realities of prison life, Atkins’ family and friends sent him books, allowing him to mentally escape his surroundings. But it was putting pen to paper that truly became his lifeline, he told prison newspaper Inside Time.
“I’d always dreamed of being a writer, and suddenly I was in the middle of the biggest story of my life,” he recalls. With a front-row seat to the daily dysfunction of the prison, Atkins meticulously documented his experiences. His various jobs within Wandsworth—conducting inmate inductions, delivering canteen supplies—exposed him to the full spectrum of life inside, from the darkly comic to the deeply traumatic. Writing, he found, was not just a creative outlet but a means of coping.
After nine months in Wandsworth, followed by a transfer to open prison, Atkins began typing up his detailed prison diary. Upon his release in 2019, he pitched his manuscript to publishers. The timing was serendipitous: the state of UK prisons was a hot topic in the media, and there was an appetite for an insider’s account. His book, A Bit of a Stretch, was published in 2020, quickly becoming a bestseller.
The write stuff
That unexpected success catapulted Atkins into a full-fledged writing career. He went on to script a TV drama for Channel 4 about the Wagatha Christie trial and authored a follow-up book on reoffending, Time After Time. But his journey didn’t stop there—he wanted to give others the same opportunity that writing had given him.
Atkins launched Bang Up Books, a charitable initiative that sources and donates new books to prison libraries across England and Wales. Since its inception, the campaign has delivered over 200,000 books to 100 prisons, giving incarcerated individuals access to the same literary escape that helped him endure his sentence.
Now, he’s taking things a step further. His latest project, Once Upon a Time, is an anthology of writing from serving and former prisoners, featuring contributions curated by renowned authors. With 10,000 copies set to be printed and distributed both to the public and prison libraries, the initiative aims to showcase voices often left unheard. Although contributors won’t be paid, all proceeds will go to the Samaritans, a charity that provides vital support to prisoners in crisis.
For Atkins, the irony isn’t lost that prison unlocked his creative potential. “I guess I’m now a professional writer, and the mad part is that I had to go to prison to unleash it,” he says. His journey from inmate to bestselling author is a testament to the power of storytelling—not just to entertain, but to transform lives.
