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 Ballad of a Small Player by Tom Shone in "The New York Times". China scholar Paul French in the "Los Angeles Review of Books" wrote: "I'll come right out and say it... Osborne's novel is the best on contemporary China since Malraux's." The Ballad of a Small Player The Ballad of a Small Player is a 2014 novel by British writer Lawrence Osborne. Set in the gambling casinos of Macau, it follows the fortunes of an English con man who passes himself off as a runaway Lord. Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, it earned Osborne comparisons with Graham Greene and Dostoievsky. The novel was