Book review: Probation: Butter Side Up
| Author | Mike Guilfoyle |
| DOI | 10.1177/02645505221095123 |
| Published date | 01 June 2022 |
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews
Probation: Butter Side Up
Wally Morgan
Independently published 2021, pp. 335, pbk, £15.00, ISBN-13: 979-
8759748380
Reviewed by: Mike Guilfoyle, Retired Member of Napo and
Magistrate
One of the rarer pleasures of reviewing books for the Probation Journal is the discov-
ery of literary gems that not only enliven the reader but evoke a powerful visceral
connection to former probation practice. One reference in Wally Morgan’s book
is to the author attending a client’s funeral at an East London crematorium, which
brought to mind a sudden frisson of recognition arising from a client’s drug
related death and funeral from my own probation officer days held at the same
venue! The book, based as it is on blisteringly candid casework experiences and
client based encounters, (all client names are anonymised) is drawn from contempor-
ary accounts contained in diary informed notebooks garnered over the first two
years of Wally Morgan’s time as a newly qualified front line Probation Officer,
working (he is known as Wally Henry in the book or by the teasing eponym as
‘Mr Wally’by his clients) initially with a ‘protected caseload’for the former Inner
London Probation Service (ILPS) in a field office in Hackney.
Wally Morgan completed his Home Office sponsored probation qualification in
1990, having previously worked in business, but had gained considerable pre-
qualification experience as a volunteer working with those under probation supervi-
sion. There are some telling professional insights in the easy-to-follow text, on how ill
-equipped he sometimes feels in his newfound role, in trying to address some of the
deep seated structural and personal obstacles to desistance from offending in the
lived experiences of those on his caseload. Particularly so when he finds the incre-
mental work-based pressures becoming more onerous but his sharply observed
reflexive awareness of how he might better engage with his clients is shaped by a
Book reviews The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2022, Vol. 69(2) 250–254
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505221095123
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
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