Glasgow gangster turned writer Jimmy Boyle: ‘I would be dead now without books'

Edit The Guardian 20 May 2016
The convicted murderer set the standard for prison writing with A Sense of Freedom in 1977 ... Yet that is what happened to Jimmy Boyle ... Twitter ... Some, such as those of the train robber Bruce Reynolds, (Autobiography of a Thief), NoelRazorSmith (A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun) and John Barker (Bending the Bars), have been self-reflective and well written, but too many have slipped into vainglorious cliche ... Twitter ... ....

Aye Write’s still a cut above your average book festival

Edit Scotsman 26 Mar 2016
“It was a bit easier for me,” NoelRazor' Smith admitted on Saturday. “I was Category A so I had the cell to myself.” Most of the rest, the kind of prisoners who haven't been done at the Old Bailey for armed robbery at 15, assaulting a warden the next year, who haven't spent 33 years in prison, and who don't presumably answer to the name ‘Razor', have to share a cell ... Even with a cell to himself, writing began late for Razor ... ....

Barbed wire? It's a punishment for pre-criminals

Edit New Statesman 08 Jan 2016
My friend NoelRazorSmith has a thing about razor wire ... since his release from prison on licence after serving 13 years of a life sentence for armed robbery, he has dropped the “Razor”, which isn’t really the right nom de plume for the fine writer he has become – but I’ve included it to twit my fellow columnist Nicholas Lezard, whose bohemian pipe dreams include naming his former flatmate at the HovelRazors”....

how the written word saved me from a life behind bars

Edit The Daily Telegraph 26 Aug 2015
On the release of his sixth book, former professional armed robber and convict Noel 'Razor' Smith tells Jonathan Wells that our prison system is creating a revolving door for young, unskilled men. ....

The British criminal slang you never knew

Edit GQ Magazine 29 Jul 2015
Entertainment / Books The British criminal slang you never knew. By Max Williams 29 July 15. Don't know your brown from your bottle? You must be Brahms! Pour yourself a diesel and brush up on your underworld lingo. . Rex Features. ACAB - acronym for "All Coppers Are Bastards" ... "Cor, these baccy tins don't half rub."  ...   ... The Criminal Alphabet by Noel 'Razor' Smith is published on 27 August 27, 2015. ....

Prison smoking ban could cause 'stability issues'

Edit BBC News 22 Jul 2015
By Danny Shaw Home affairs correspondent. 22 July 2015. From the section UK. Banning smoking in prisons in England and Wales could make them more unstable, the Prison Governors Association (PGA) has warned. Ministers are drawing up plans to convert the first jails to be smoke-free next year ... 'Stability issues' ... A Ministry of Justice spokesman said ... Razor Smith, who served three decades in prison for a spate of armed robberies, said. ... ....
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