Secure Lives will be of great use to anyone interested in the inner workings of a High Secure Hospital. It provides a rare insight into the inner workings of these closed institutions....Bartlett and her team were in situ to observe changes in management and in relationships between members of staff. Secure Lives is also highly readable....I found that the chapters on anthropological practice, reflexivity and methodology were filled with new terminology and practices, but Barletts style, humour and self-awareness bring personality and liveliness to what could easily have been a dense text. Finally, for anyone interested in institutions from that time period, whether historian or psychiatrist, the book serves as a valuable historical document that encapsulates life on the wards of Smithtown.