I'm Still Standing (PDF)

The autobiography of a dyslexic, alcoholic, ex-prisoner. When this book was first published, Bob Turney had given up crime, was studying for a degree at Reading University and was generally rehabilitating himself by way of voluntary work. Three years on Bob is a probation officer now working in a Youth Justice Team (YOT) and is in considerable demand by the media and on the lecture circuit (including a USA tour at the start of 2000). His progress from down-and-out 'ex-con' to respected citizen is charted in this book which contains his life story up until 1997. In 1999, Bob Turney, Mark Leech (author of The Prisons Handbook 2002) and the internationally reknowned stage and screen actor Stephen Fry launched the organization UNLOCK, the National Association of ex-offenders, at Pentonville prison. At the same time, Bob Turney also co-operated with another Waterside author, Angela Devlin, on a remarkable set of recollections by other criminals about how they had turned their lives around. This led to another book Going Straight: After Crime and Punishment [see The Waterside Press Prison List] which is an ideal companion to I'm Still Standing for those readers who wish to explore the phenomenon of why and how at a certain point in their lives some people decide to give up crime permanently.