Prison Diary, Argentina

By Simon Winchester

For 77 days – including the entire period of the Falklands War – Simon Winchester of the Sunday Times was kept in prison by the Argentine authorities.

Together with two other British journalists he was held in a tiny cell in one of the world’s most southerly towns, Ushuaia, in the remote province of Tierra del Fuego: they had been arrested on suspicion of spying.

During the entire time he was in prison, Simon kept a diary, recording the daily life of the prison where he and his colleagues lived with murderers, prostitutes, robbers, gunmen, drunks, and even a cattle rustler. In addition to the diary are the texts of some of the many letters Winchester received from friends and relations, and from total strangers, many recording their feelings about the remarkable events of that unforgettable summer.

Winchester, who was one of a small group of British journalists actually on the Falkland Islands when they were invaded, introduces the diary with an account of how he came to be in the South Atlantic, and of how he came to be arrested. He also sums up his experiences and recounts a second visit he made to the Falklands once the war was over and he was free.

Prison Diary, Argentina is, on one level, an adventure story – a classic tale in the life of a foreign correspondent. On another, the book is a most unusual contribution to the literature of the Falklands campaign, and a human document of intense interest.