Joan Henry sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. She served eight months, the majority at Holloway prison, and also at Askham Grange open prison. Before her imprisonment, Henry earned a living writing romance novels. She came to prominence in 1952 with the publication of "Who Lie in Gaol" (the title was taken from a line in Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"), based on her experiences in prison, which became a best-seller. Henry was critical of Holloway prison, giving accounts of brutal treatment and neglect she had witnessed. The book was the basis for the film "The Weak and the Wicked" (1953),
The Big Ballad Jamboree The Big Ballad Jamboree The Big Ballad Jamboree is a novel by the American writer Donald Davidson, written in the 1950s and published posthumously in 1996. The story is set in the summer of 1949 in southwestern North Carolina. It follows the romance between Danny MacGregor, a hillbilly music singer, and Cissy Timberlake, a folk-music scholar and former singer. The novel's principal theme is the conflict between tradition and commercial prospects. Davidson was best known as a poet and "The Big Ballad Jamboree" was his only novel. "Publishers Weekly's" critic wrote: "the novel places a comic spin on the serious