A former Hollesley Bay inmate has finished the creative writing degree he started while in prison and already has big plans to write a novel and complete a PhD.
David Shipley, 40, has recently completed his dissertation piece for his Master's Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Hull.
Though feeling "drained" after months of intensive preparation for his final assessments, Mr Shipley says he now feels "a sense of accomplishment," particularly given the origins of his desire to write.
In 2014, Mr Shipley committed fraud by producing a fake document which lied to his investors about his financial history, an action he reflects on as a "stupid and dishonest thing to do".
After being approached by the police in 2018, he pled guilty and was sentenced in February 2020.
He was first sent to HMP Wandsworth, a men's prison in South West London, and it was here that he first started his journey with writing by keeping a journal.
After six weeks, Mr Shipley said the experience "became even stranger" with the announcement of the first lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He turned to writing and immersing himself in literature as a coping technique and began working in the prison library.
While developing his style, he decided to submit an entry to the Koestler Awards, which are aimed at motivating prisoners, secure hospital patients and immigration detainees to take part in the arts.
Mr Shipley won some of these prizes with the work he had written in London and was transferred to HMP Hollesley Bay near Woodbridge in late 2020.
"The move was healthy for me in lots of ways," he said.
"In contrast to Wandsworth, I could actually walk outside in the fresh air.
"I find it easier to be creative in natural environments."
After approximately 10 months of honing his craft, Mr Shipley decided he wanted to take writing "to the next level" and approached the prison's re-education department in January 2021.
They helped him research different courses to put an application together and he was accepted onto the MA programme at the University of Hull for Winter 2021.
"There were three of us doing degrees at Hollesley," Mr Shipley said.
"The staff were really supportive and allowed us quiet spaces for studying."
He added that while there are "lots of rubbish things" about being in prison, it did mean that he had no distractions and his family were able to order his course books for him through Amazon.
"I was really worried I'd be the only old git on the course," he said.
"But there was a broad demographic with people studying from all over the world remotely."
Mr Shipley completed half of his MA in prison and the other half after he was released to his home in Gloucestershire.
He specialises in two areas of writing, the first being fiction.
For his final dissertation, he wrote 60 pages of a novel he is now planning to finish which will retell the Trojan War from the point of view of Agamemnon's wife.
The second area he enjoys is using narrative non-fiction to explain the prison experience.
Next on Mr Shipley's list of plans for the future is to complete a PhD researching a book with the rough working title: 'The kids of prisoners'.
"I spoke to a lot of guys in prison who had children of different ages," he said.
"A lot of their kids find it very difficult so I'm going to write about the shame experienced by the children of prisoners."
Mr Shipley was pleased to use his time in prison productively and wants to encourage other people to do it too.
"I'm really passionate about helping prisoners to develop skills so they are able to come back to society and contribute positively," he said.
"It's never too late to start something new."
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