Mansions of Misery

Selected as a Book of the Year by BBC History Magazine

For Londoners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, debt was a part of everyday life. But when your creditors lost their patience, you might be thrown into one of the capital's most notorious jails: the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison.

The Marshalsea became a byword for misery; in the words of one of its inmates, it was 'hell in epitome'. But the prison was also a microcosm of London life and it housed a colourful range of characters, including Charles Dickens's father. The experience haunted the writer, who went on to immortalise the Marshalsea in his work, most memorably in Little Dorrit.

In Mansions of Misery, acclaimed chronicler of the capital Jerry White introduces us to the Marshalsea's unfortunate prisoners rich and poor; men and women; spongers, fraudsters and innocents. We get to know the trumpeter John Grano who wined and dined with the prison governor and...