East End crime writer Linda Calvey published her 'prison diaries' last week, including a tribute to a fellow East Ender who remains in jail for a murder he insists he did not commit.
Linda, born in Ilford, was dubbed “the Black Widow” by the press after she was convicted of murdering her husband in 1991.
At the time of her release in 2012, she was Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner.
Now a bestselling crime author, her latest book Life Inside details her encounters behind bars with serial killers Rose West and Myra Hindley among others.
But the book opens with a poem written by another convicted killer, Jason Moore, currently serving life for a killing even his supposed victim’s family do not believe he committed.
Jason, from Canary Wharf, was charged with stabbing Robert Darby to death outside the Valentine pub in Perth Road, Gants Hill, in 2005, after a single eyewitness identified him as the killer.
“I included Jason in the book because I truly believe in his innocence – and I know when you’re in that situation, any help at all to highlight it is important,” Linda said.
An investigation by this newspaper uncovered new evidence in Jason’s case last year, which is now being used to try to overturn his conviction.
When we found the witness who picked him out as the killer, he told us he was “drunk” at the time and might have identified the wrong person.
The campaign for Jason’s release is jointly run by his own sister Kirstie and Robert Darby’s brother Tim, from Havering.
“Jason deserves all the support he can get,” said Linda. “I 101 per cent believe in him and I know lots of other people do too.
“I believe it was a very bad miscarriage of justice and I think today your best hope of getting back to court is through the media and publicity.
“Now, anyone who reads this book will see his poem and his photo and can look up his case.”
Life Inside, published by Headline, details Linda’s two stints in prison.
The first sentence, handed down in 1986, was for a string of armed robberies which Linda admits she committed.
Having grown up in Stepney, she fell in love with armed robber Mickey Calvey, who was later shot dead by a police officer whilst robbing a south London supermarket.
By then, Linda had herself become entrenched in the criminal underworld, working as a getaway driver for bank robbers and gangsters, even rubbing shoulders with the Kray twins.
But in 1991 she was handed a life sentence after being convicted of murdering her second husband Ronnie Cook – a crime she insists she did not commit.
In December, she gave a speech at a special church service in Poplar, held in Jason’s honour, to remember wrongly convicted prisoners and their families at Christmas.
“The injustice that befell Jason and me could befall anyone,” she told the audience. “It could befall you.”
Life Inside, she said, “tells the story of my life travelling through prison. It tells you how things work in prison and what it takes to survive the ups and downs.
“I’ve not made it all doom and gloom. There will be bits people will laugh at and bits people will find shocking. I hope I’ve got a happy medium.
“I want anybody who reads this book in prison to know that there is life after prison and I’m proof that there is.
“I’m now an established author after all those years I spent inside. I hope that gives people inspiration and lets them know there’s better to come, as long as you want it and go for it.”
Linda held a book launch for Life Inside at the Papillon Italian restaurant in Chigwell on Saturday, January 6.
It has been praised by bestselling author Kimberley Chambers, herself a former Romford cab driver.
Linda also counts Martina Cole among her fans. Mrs Cole, the first British female novelist ever to exceed £50million in adult fiction book sales, has described Linda as “the most authentic new voice in crime fiction”.
Linda’s fifth book, a crime novel called Faith, is due out in May.
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