“After the war he became a prison warder and served in Mountjoy and Portlaoise Prisons.”

“A prison warder was called as a witness, to enable Barker to establish the harsh character of solitary confinement in the jail.”

“It's not a name which trips easily off the tongue, unless, of course, you happen to be a warder in a Singapore prison.”

“In squalid, solitary confinement, with only Grace Poole as her wardress, what wonder that she relapses?”

“At least I gathered as much from the alarmed expression of the wardress who accompanied him.”

“I suppose his mother went around in a black alpaca and wore her hair like a wardress in a jail.”

“But the German wardresses remained vaguely aware of her special status and seem to have relaxed in her company.”

“Two wardresses held her down while a doctor clamped open her mouth with a steel implement.”

“Greta spoke like the wardresses, in a tone out of which all modulation had gone.”