On August 9, 2001, twenty-two days after author Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury, he was transferred from HMP Belmarsh, a notorious high-security prison in south London, to HMP Wayland, a medium security prison in Norfolk. He served sixty-seven days in Wayland and during that time, encountered not only the daily degradations of a dangerously over-stretched prison system, but the spirit and courage of his fellow inmates. Purgatory is an account of his experiences in prison.