If you know of any more, let me know. If you don't have a copy of the book yourself, try the library.

Although Hilary Kingsley never manages to approach the dizzy heights of inaccuracy achieved by Terry Bourke (she does seem to have actually watched the programme), there are a few niggling errors...

Spelling of names

Martha Eves rather than Eaves
Noelene Bourke rather than Noeline
Sharon Gilmore rather than Gilmour
Paul Reed rather than Reid
Lianne Bourke rather than Leanne
Rosalind Coulson rather than Rosyln
Suzi Driscoll rather than Susie

But there is no excuse for the reference to "Red Keen" (page 93)!

Most of the errors listed below are fairly trivial, though there are one or two spectacular clangers..

• page 35 - profile of Bella Albrecht. Bella is drowned not strangled and Martha Eaves is not "carted off to a more secure prison" after killing Bella, but remains in Wentworth. The same mistake is repeated in Martha's own profile (page 47).

 
• page 36 - profile of Vera. Her supposed soulmate was called Jock Stewart not Mackay. This mistake is repeated throughout the book.

• page 38 - profile of Lizzie. It was Captain Barton, not Paul Reid, who "set about trying to locate Lizzie's family".

 
• page 38-39 - profile of Noeline. Col Bourke was Noeline's brother, not "her eldest child". After the petrol station robbery, Leanne did not join her mother in gaol. It was Noelene's son George who was caught with the cloth from Andrew Reynolds' factory, not "Wayne".

 
• page 39 - profile of Judy. Judy did not have "a lesbian affair with one of her teachers" in America. Her lover was a teacher, but that's not quite the same thing!

 
• page 46 - profile of Janet Dominguez - "While all the staff - with the exception of Davo - slept, the guerrillas (armed to the teeth) broke in". This implies that Erica was at the prison, but she was at home. The officer who stayed awake because she didn't drink the drugged coffee was Officer Edwards.

 
• page 47 - profile of Susie Driscoll. Bizarre mixup which at first seems to be the result of a clumsily constructed sentence. But no, HK does indeed seem to think that Susie - who leaves in episode (303) - was responsible for the mercy killing of Hazel Kent - in episode (399)!

 
• page 48 - profile of Joan Ferguson. Almost complete nonsense from start to finish! The fight with Bea as described takes place during the big fire, not before it. And the fire was started as a diversion on Bea's orders to allow her to lure Joan to solitary. In HK's version, Joan got Chrissie to start the fire "as part of her strategy to have the already reprimanded governor Anne Reynolds sacked". Anne Reynolds did not become Governor until forty episodes after the fire - Erica was still Governor at this point.

 
• page 48 - profile of Monica Ferguson. Monica's husband Fred wasn't a gangster, and the money originally came from a bank job done by Joyce Martin's husband Harry.

 
• page 52 - profile of Sharon Gilmour. Sharon wasn't delivering drugs to "a party" when she was caught. Sharon seduces Chrissie not Doreen.

• page 53 - profile of Meg Jackson/Morris. Meg ended up in prison after being found in contempt of court for refusing to give evidence which would harm Judy's status in the newly opened halfway house. As she didn't give any evidence, she could hardly have been charged with perjury.

 
• page 55 - profile of Chrissie Latham. Although it may have been true that Chrissie "was last seen in the maternity wing" in the episodes HK had seen at that time, this is far from the end of Chrissie's story!

 
• page 56 - profile of Greg Miller. Karen Travers did not have to have "brain surgery", and this mistake is repeated in Karen's own profile (page 62) where it is mistakenly stated that she was "shot in the head".

 
• page 56 - profile of Mum Brooks. Mum may have collapsed while living with Judith-Anne, but she did not die.

 
• page 60 - profile of Bea Smith. Ken Pearce may have been banned from Wentworth after the store cupboard incident, but not "for ever", as he is later allowed to visit Bea again.

 
• page 63 - profile of Anne Yates. She did not suffocate because she accidentally locked herself in a drier: Vera closed the drier door, not knowing that Anne Yates was hiding inside.

 
• Elspeth Ballantyne claims that Meg "was blown up in a brick factory with Erica, the governor" (page 72). She means Anne Reynolds.

 
• in the profile of Fiona Spence (page 76), HK gives a garbled version of an anecdote involving Vera and a stray dog. It was Vera herself who gave the dog the name Prudence (Lizzie called it "Chips" because it went with vinegar!), and Vera did not insist that the dog was taken to the RSPCA to be put down. Oddly, HK gets the story right in Vera's own profile (page 36).

 
• in the profile of Glenda Linscott (page 77), Rita Connors is described as an "umarried mum" (!!). Unmarried she may be, but mum....?

 
• in the profile of Lesley Baker (page 80), she is said to have "declined" the role of Tinkerbell. So who was that really in episodes (390) to (392)?

 
• Maggie Kirkpatrick is quoted as claiming to have made "nearly five hundred episodes" (page 81). She means nearly four hundred.

 Updated ~ 04 January 1998