25th July, 2006

CAROLE ADAMS

Porridge and Passion
Jonathan Aitken
Published by Continuum International, 2005
ISBN 9780826476302

"This is a book about the working out of God’s plan in Jonathan Aitken’s life. There weren’t many instant miracles or rescues, rather a slow steady growth in his trust in God in the circumstances, as he confessed his failures, and allowed himself to be changed."

This book continues the story of Jonathan Aitken’s life after his fall from a position of power and influence as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the British Cabinet. At the end of his first book Pride and Perjury, Aitken is awaiting sentencing after issuing a confession statement to the prosecuting authorities admitting his crime of perjury during a libel trial against the Guardian newspaper. During the court case Aitken suffered public humiliation, media vilification and personalised vindictiveness from his enemies, and his marriage ended in divorce. At the same time Aitken had become a Christian, repented of wrong doing, and was reaching out to God and other Christians for support.

Porridge and Passion begins with Aitken being sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and starting his life as a convicted criminal. He gives a detailed account of his first night in Belmarsh Prison, and the conflicting emotions he went through as he entered an alien and disorientating world. The author’s account of his own reactions to prison life is often humorous, but he is also honest enough to admit his fear which was only controlled when he realised that God was still with him and still promised him "unfailing love and full redemption".

The accounts of prison life and Aitken’s interactions with fellow prisoners make very entertaining reading, while at the same time exposing the harsher realities of being a prisoner. He coped with the solitude of being locked up for 22 hours a day by taking journeys of mind, pen and spirit as advised by Charles Colson, and after a month at maximum security Belmarsh was transferred to HMP Stamford Hill which was a huge improvement on the conditions he had been living under.

It was at Stamford Hill that Aitken became part of a prayer group which formed after he had prayed for another prisoner. The chaplain eventually joined this group which became known as the PFG - Prayer and Fellowship Group. The original group soon split into two as numbers grew and a third group formed to do Bible studies. Aitken found great personal satisfaction in helping some of the prisoners get to know the Lord and, as a result, found he was learning so much about God himself and even started to feel more at peace.

The media continued to besiege Aitken in prison, and there were constant leaks, invented stories and even a prison break-in, which was not appreciated or handled well by the prison authorities, and the headlines eventually resulted in him being moved from Stamford Hill to finish his sentence at HMP Elmley under high security conditions. His imprisonment ends with home detention curfew which means he had to wear an electronic monitor which equates to a detention within the boundaries of the offenders property. In Aitken’s case it was for a term of 6 weeks.

Freedom did not bring an end to the problems - Aitken’s creditors were still chasing him, bankruptcy threatened, the media still hounded him and it looked as though his plan to study at theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, was not going to eventuate. The last few chapters of the book deal with all this and more, and through it all the author tells of how so many things were out of his hands. The only thing he could do in most cases was pray, and trust God to work "all things together for good".

This is a book about the working out of God’s plan in Jonathan Aitken’s life. There weren’t many instant miracles or rescues, rather a slow steady growth in his trust in God in the circumstances, as he confessed his failures, and allowed himself to be changed. Encouraging reading for all of us who often struggle through the less than perfect circumstances of our own lives, often making mistakes along the way.

Sight's review of Pride and Perjury... | more... |