Erwin James

Erwin James Monahan (18 April 1957 – 19 January 2024) was a British convicted recidivist criminal and murderer who became a newspaper columnist and wrote for ''The Guardian'' from 1998, writing under the name "Erwin James" whilst still incarcerated. He was released in August 2004, having served 20 years of a life sentence. From 2000 he wrote a regular column about prison life entitled ''A Life Inside'', the first column of its kind in the history of British journalism. He continued to write for the national press and became the editor-in-chief of ''Inside Time'', a national newspaper in the UK for people in prison, as well as doing charity work, since his release. While he was in prison, fees for his articles were paid not to him but to the Prisoners' Advice Service charity, which had helped him. Provided by Wikipedia