L. McKeown, Time Shadows: A Prison Memoir, reviewed by Jade Moran

Time Shadows is a remarkable memoir of imprisonment.It is a beautiful elegy to lost comrades and a searing indictment of British state violence against Irish Republican prisoners in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.The 13 chapters focus on the prison protest years of 1976 to 1981.These were Dr Laurence McKeown's first five years in prison, and they capture Britain's brutal attempt to criminalize Irish political prisoners during the blanket protest, the no-wash protest, and the battle ground of the 1981 Hunger Strikes.Laurence was walled up naked for 1621 days, and it is truly astonishing that he emerged alive.It is a book about endurance, comradeship, belief, and hope.Chapter 1 sets the scene of the British policy of criminalization.We learn that Laurence has been sentenced to five life sentences plus 230 years following a trial that lasted a day and a half in a Diplock Court with a single judge.In Chapter 2, he arrives in the H-Blocks on 27 April 1977 and refuses to wear a prison uniform.What follows is a deeply personal account of the relentless brutality experienced by political prisoners as they try to navigate a system that labels them as common criminals.Laurence McKeown spent four and half years on the blanket protest.He endured 1079 days on a no-wash protest and 70 agonizing days on hunger strike.He did not know how long he would serve in prison.As he recalls, it is the uncertainty of imprisonment that "compounds the brutality of the moment" (viii).Laurence would eventually serve 16 years in the H-Blocks.It remains astonishing that after surviving the hunger strikes, he still had to endure a further 11 years of imprisonment, "extremely exhausted" (239) and too weak to walk across the Circle without holding on to a wall for support.It is a gigantic moment of endurance and fortitude after ten weeks without food.He makes his way back to his comrades alive.The prison officers deride him as "Another failed hunger striker…" (238), however, it is Laurence's strength and dignity that are proclaimed by this battle of endurance.The memoir contains 14 original illustrations by Gabrielle Williams.These sketches are beautifully realized because of their poignant simplicity.Gabrielle's illustrations help the reader to visualize the prison space, the brutality of the regime, and imaginative means of communication between prisoners.The black and white sketches offer a fine contrast with the 16 pages of colour photographs and facsimiles that are featured in the book.