Andy back at HMP Erlestoke

Andy’s 2017 appearance at the ‘Penned Up’ prison festival, a unique arts event held at HMP Erlestoke in Wiltshire, was successful enough to guarantee him a return booking this year…

This week, Andy returned to Erlestoke as one of several speakers and performers across the two week festival to give his presentation Unexplained Mysteries and Cover-Ups to a group of 40 or so Category-C prisoners. Last year’s lecture on conspiracies was well-remembered and Andy was honoured to be asked back again.

Andy says: “The gentlemen of Erlestoke are a good audience to perform for; they are intelligently enquiring and open-minded to hearing different views of the world, perhaps understandably, given their feeling that the authorities have dealt them a tough hand. Locking people up without hope and inspiration and simply expecting them to come out better human beings plainly doesn’t work, so I totally support the aims of the Penned Up festival and applaud its organisers for their visionary approach to aiding people back into society through stimulation and education.”

Other high-profile speakers at the event this year included the one-time Beirut hostage Terry Waite, musician Levi Roots and footballer Tony Adams MBE.