Clearly a simpleton's view of the world that caters to the simpleton audience of victimized men. If you've failed at most the meaningful things in your life, and tend to blame others, you will love this book. Underlying sentiments are jaundiced as it attempts to preach on and aggrandize all that would seem painfully obvious to even the mildly secure and marginally successful man. These guys sound as if their world is dominated by women as they appear to yearn for an all-male utopia. Skip this book entirely...or better yet, go hang out with Jimmy in his bar with a bunch of "guys" while you get drunk and bad advice as the world passes by. What else would you expect from a bartender? PS: Jimmy's Bar is not on the Upper West Side.

If you read Jimmy's column in Men's Health magazine, you'll enjoy this book. It was well-spent [money], I must say. Humorous, clever advice from Jimmy made for entertaining, if less than profound, reading. Definitely worth purchasing.

This guy has good common sense when it comes to giving the right answers to men who have problems with women, the job, money etc. I first heard of him through Men's Health magazine, where he has his monthly column. Just about all of his answers to the men's questions on everyday problems will have you shaking your head in agreement. A great, entertaining book. I wish this guy was my bartender.

This book was the first book I read without prompting.
I particularly liked the first half of the story,identifying
closely with his upbringing and life in the 'old' Gorbals as a
young boy (rag-arsed,snotty nosed with a penchant for the taste
of earthworms).

A brutally honest, fascinating insight into the world of Glasgow's Jimmy Boyle... hard man and career criminal. Sent to the notorious Barlinie jail after a life of crime he gradually begins the slow process of recognising the futility of his life - but not before taking on the prison system and authorities just as he has taken on every authority figure in his life. Made into a successful TV movie, this book is shocking, riveting and true. It's also tight and concise.

I first read A Sense of Freedom in the 1970s when I was a lonely teenager with a very unhappy homelife. The book vividly describes gang life in Glasgow in the 60s and 70s and it made a deep impression on me. Not least because Jimmy, even though imprisoned in Barlinnie, had managed to find for himself 'a sense of freedom'. I felt I could understand a little of that desire for, and strugge towards freedom, because although I was, in comparsion to Jimmy, in a much more fortunate situation, I was still imprisoned by my own unhappiness and that of my parents. I found it difficult to talk about my situation at home, because like a lot of unhappy young people I couldn't see where the problems came from, and so had no words to explain this unhappiness to my parents or to anyone else. One day I decided to write to Jimmy (who was still in Barlinnie) and to my astonishment he wrote back to me! I treasured his letter and even took it with me to hospital one night when I had cut my arm in a self harming incident. I told the duty nurse about him and showed her my letter. My parents came to see me, but they were drunk and it was not the same. Although I did not know Jimmy I felt that he would understand in some way how I was feeling. I wrote again, and he wrote back again. I wrote once more and then the letters stopped. I don't know whether he got tired of me! Or whether he was told to stop writing. A year ago in the final year of my BA I read Jimmy's prison diaries and realised that he had received many letters around the time that I wrote to him. He had a lot to deal with. I have though about him sometimes over the years, and thought about the strange connections we make with strangers and how they affect our lives. The last time I heard anything about him was over 8 years ago when I saw a documentary programme about him and his sculpting. He changed his life very dramatically in a way that I wanted to change mine. I wrote to him twenty years ago, and if he ever reads this, I have changed my life too. I have just finished a BA degree and I write about self harm. Like him I have used what life taught me and made some good out of it. Mine isn't a very dramatic story, and there is no happy ending yet. But now I don't necessarily expect one. I am still looking for a sense of freedom because I know that ultimately it is within all of us, and not something out there. If you read this Jimmy I hope all is well, and thanks for bothering. Not many people did at the time. Julie Farrand (Kedge) julie.farrand@man.ac.uk