Stir: A Novelization

by Bob Jewson

STIR is the real story of a prison riot. It is the story of China Jackson, who returns to Gatunga Jail where three years before he had been savagely baton-whipped by Senior Warder Norton and other screws following a peaceful demonstration the inmates had staged over shocking conditions in the jail. When released, China tried to stir the outside into doing something about the savagery on the inside, but it was seen only as a one-day scandal. On China's return to Gatunga, Norton tries to tell him he is sorry, but China wants action, not words. He wants the jail "burnt to the ground." The other inmates finally execute his wish. The writer, Bob Jewson, knows what China went through. In February 1974 he was a prisoner at Bathurst Gaol when rioting prisoners gutted the gaol.