Alyson Brown is a Reader in History at Edge Hill University, UK. She has conducted extensive research into the history of crime and penal history. Her book, English Society and the Prison (2003) was well received and widely reviewed. She has also published numerous articles and chapters on this subject area.

• 1.Acknowledgements 2. Introduction 3. The Dartmoor Convict Prison Riot 1932: "wild happenings on the moor" 4. A Man Seeking Closure: Alexander Paterson, Du Parcq and Inter-war Penal Policy 5. Dartmoor Gaol Battle: The Dartmoor Riot as a National Media Event 6. The Elephant and Castle Gang and Criminal Careers of Dartmoor Prison Inmates 7. Microhistory and the Modern Prison Conclusion

“This book uses the central event of the riot as a cypher to explore key areas in the history of crime and penality in inter-war England. … The book has much to recommend it, in terms of both the detailed study of the event, the broader study of the culture of the prison, and the responses to, and representation of, the prison and its inmates in social and political discourse.” (Heather Shore, History - Journal of the Historical Association, January, 2016)