etters for (Bloomsbury Continuum, 320pp, £20), edited by James Drake and Edward Smyth, brings together letters from figures as various as St. Paul, Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots, Dostoyevsky, Billy the Kid, A1 Capone, and Martin Luther King Jr. Extracts are organized into categories such as confession, injustice, life behind bars, and redemption. Amid ‘raw agony there is gentleness and even humour,’ writes jailbird politician-turned priest Jonathan Aitken in his foreword. ‘The ambush of the unexpected is a common feature of this enthralling book.’
