• The untold story of the infamous criminal, Charles Salvador - known to millions as Britain's most violent prisoner Charles Bronson - from the unique perspective of his wife Irene Dunroe.
• Every other book about Charles romanticises his crimes and violent nature, while Inside and Out examines his life before prison, when he was a completely ‘normal’, well-adjusted young man, and how deeply loss can affect behaviour
• The author is in weekly correspondence with Charles Salvador over email and letters and has been invited to visit Charles in Long Lartin prison to inform her research.
A story of two halves, documenting the life of Irene Dunroe – the first wife of Michael Peterson, now known as Charles Salvador, Britain’s most notorious and longest serving prisoner. The story will be told from two points of view, a chapter dedicated to Irene’s view from when she first met ‘Mick’, followed by a chapter dedicated to Charlie’s view.
As well as documenting Irene’s life, the story will show in Charlie’s chapters what was going on in his life behind bars, and will focus on never before told details of how Irene’s life impacted his state of mind. Charlie was aware of everything that was happening in Irene’s life, and though he didn’t acknowledge it at the time, in retrospect he realises that a lot of his violent outbursts behind bars were directly related to his feelings of anger and grief at losing the only people he had truly loved – his wife and his son.
This is a truly tragic love story, and despite Irene re-marrying, having two more children, and living a full life without her first husband, she has always been drawn back to Charlie, and he to her. Now, more than 40 years after divorcing and both in their 70s, the star-crossed lovers seem to be drawn together once again. Irene lights up when she talks about ‘her Mick’, and in his many letters to the author, Charles can’t help but talk about his heart missing a beat and his breath being taken away when ‘his Irene’ visits him.
This book ends with a series of questions. Is this man really a monster? How much has the system created him? Is it now time for the parole board to give him a chance to live out his final years as a free man? While never excusing the violence and horror he has inflicted on others, Shaw takes an in-depth look, for the first time, at the possible root causes of his behaviour.