Inside Broadmoor
The Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller
'There is time and then there is Broadmoor time.'
Broadmoor. Few place names in the world have such chilling resonance. For over 150 years, it has contained the UK's most violent, dangerous and psychopathic.
Since opening as an asylum for the criminally insane in 1863 it has housed the perpetrators of many of the most shocking crimes in history; including Jack the Ripper suspect James Kelly, serial killers Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper), John Straffen and Kenneth Erskine, armed robber Charles Bronson, gangster Ronnie Kray, and cannibal Peter Bryan.
The truth about what goes on behind the Victorian walls of the high security hospital has largely remained a mystery, but now with unprecedented access TV journalist Jonathan Levi and cultural historian Emma French paint a vivid picture of life at Broadmoor, after nearly a decade observing and speaking to those on the inside.
Including interviews with the staff, its experts and the patients themselves, Inside Broadmoor is the most comprehensive study of the institution to-date.
Published at the dawn of a new era for the hospital, this is the full story of Broadmoor's past, present and future and a dark but enlightening journey into the minds of Britain's most dangerous and how they are treated.
Jonathan Levi (Author)
Jonathan Levi is a successful television executive and BAFTA-nominated documentary film maker. Attracted to the extremes in society, he was the first person to ever gain full access to the patients and staff at Broadmoor for a highly-acclaimed primetime ITV series offering startling insights into the minds of some of Britain's most notorious psychiatric patients.
When TV star and recording artist Tulisa was entrapped by the Sun on Sunday she turned to Jonathan to author and tell her story for BBC1 in the ratings hit Tulisa: The Price of Fame. Jonathan has made programmes with Andrew Lloyd Webber about his art collection and his musicals, and has hosted fundraisers with The Old Vic.
He was Factual Producer on the ITV four-part drama, Hatton Garden, and co-author of a book on the same subject Hatton Garden: The Inside Story.
Emma French (Author)
Dr Emma French writes about how particular people, places and stories hit the headlines and capture the public imagination. Her books include Selling Shakespeare to Hollywood, and, as Co-Author with Jonathan Levi, Hatton Garden: The Inside Story. She lives in London with Jonathan and their three children.