Reviews
Quill and Quire // October 2015 // “…empathetic and insightful memoir”
New York Post // September 19, 2015 // This Week’s Must-Read Books
Kobo // September 25, 2015 // 5 Things to Read This Weekend
Elle Canada // October issue // 12 books you need to read this fall // 15 Fall Must-Reads
Avid Reader Magazines and Books // September 28, 2015 // “The Prison Book Club” by journalist Ann Walmsley is Julie & Kelly’s New Pick! An absorbing, funny, original Canadian memoir… This book is ‘the real deal’. Walmsley captures the truth inherent in prison life & the power of reading. A Must-Read!”
Tales from the Reading Room Blog // November 2, 2015 // “I loved this book and will be thinking about its implications for a long time to come”
National Post // November 30, 2015 // The NP99: The Best Books of the Year
CBC News Manitoba // December 6, 2015 // “Straightforward and moving examination. ..If you have been in a book club, chances are you’ve read many of the books on the The Prison Book Club reading list. And that is part of the joy of this book.”
Hampstead Highgate Express (Ham&High) // April 27, 2016 // “The men’s insights are nuanced, intelligent…”
Calgary Public Library // Chosen for the 2016 Year of Reading Guide (Adults)
For a quick survey of quotes from these and other reviews see The Book Page
Live Interviews
CBC Radio One ~ The Current // September 18, 2015 // Listen here // Read more here
CTV’s Canada AM // September 22, 2015 // Read more here
BBC Radio London ~ Jo Good // October 13, 2015 // Listen at 1:10:28 in episode
BBC Radio 4 ~ Open Book with Mariella Frostrup // October 18, 2015 // Listen at 13:18 in episode
BBC World Service ~ Weekend // October 17, 2015 // Listen here
Roundhouse Radio ~ Sense of Place with Minelle Mahtani // November 19, 2015 // Listen here
BBC Radio Scotland ~ The Janice Forsyth Show // November 25, 2015 // Listen at 1:23:59 in episode
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National ~ The Law Report // December 15, 2015 // Listen here
The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers // January 25, 2016 // Listen here // Read more
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National ~ Books Plus // January 31, 2016 // Listen here
Media Coverage
Toronto Star
September 19, 2015 // Lessons from a prison book club
September 27, 2015 // Five good reads from the Word on the Street festival
Toronto Arts Report
July 22, 2017 // Interview with Ann Walmsley
Articles by Ann Walmsley
The Independent on Sunday // October 11, 2015 // Ann Walmsley: How the joy of reading can set you free
Literary dispatch for English PEN // December 3, 2015 // The Prison Book Club comes full circle
Review of Lawrence Hill’s novel The Illegal in Literary Review of Canada // January/February 2016 // Run, Keita, Run
Feature article on a cottage book club in Cottage Life Magazine // Summer 2018 // Bound by Books
Ann Walmsley is the author of The Prison Book Club and a magazine journalist whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine, Maclean’s and many other publications. She is the recipient of four National Magazine Awards, a Canadian Business Journalism Award and two International Regional Magazine awards. She founded her first book club at age nine.
