Paul Tunstead · Author
Meet
the Urchin.
I grew up in Runcorn. I’ve been a boy in care, a prisoner, a gym orderly and a man fighting addiction. Now I’m putting that life into words.
The man behind the memoir
Always looking
for a way through.
Children’s homes came first, then prison. I spent nineteen years inside over a twenty-two-year span. My last conviction was in 2004; I was released in 2007.
Those years are part of my story. So are the people I met, the books I read, the sport I played and the things I taught myself along the way.
I’ve always been observant and resourceful. I like understanding how things work. Give me a problem and I’ll look for a way to solve it. That’s the Urchin in me.
What kept me learning
Energy.
Somewhere to put it.
The mind
Books & learning
I read more than a thousand books, from novels to dictionaries. There was always something else to learn. “Prison was my university.”
The body
Sport & discipline
I worked as a gym orderly in most of the prisons I was in. Circuits, rowing, football, volleyball and table tennis gave all that energy somewhere constructive to go.
The instinct
Work it out
Watch. Learn. Have a go. I’ve always believed that if another man can do something, I can learn how to do it too.
Made With Conviction: Survival Instinct
A life.
In my own voice.
I’m writing about the life I lived: children’s homes, prison, addiction, friendships, diving through windows, rolling cars, narrow escapes and the road beyond them.
There’s humour in it because there was humour in the life. There are people I remember, conversations that stayed with me and songs that take me straight back to a particular prison and year.
I want the reader to hear me in it. The words, the memories and the way I tell a story.
What comes next
For the next Urchin.
“Show future Urchins there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Fitness With Conviction is another part of that purpose: giving movement, discipline and belonging a place in other people’s lives.
I know what it is to struggle with addiction. I want to put my experience to use and help others find a way forward.
“I don’t do bitter.”
Paul Tunstead
Made With
Conviction.
Follow the memoir as it grows, with memories, excerpts and updates from the man writing it.
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