For me, the theme of this issue is a particularly poignant one: prisons. How often have I shared in a meeting – or heard others share – “When I was drinking, I felt as if I was in jail”. And it’s true. Like a real prisoner, I had no control over my life, no freedom, no choice. I took a drink, and the drink took me. When I picked up that first drink, I could not stop until I passed out, and who knew what wreckage I’d cause along the way, to myself and to anyone unlucky enough to cross my path?
It’s not like that today, entirely thanks to the grace of God and the Fellowship of AA. When I read through the stories in this issue, I felt the identification I always feel with other alcoholics, no matter where life has taken them. That’s another great gift of AA. In these pages a contributor has written “Hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless”. I think that’s as fine a description of what AA has given me as anything, and it is an offer open to anyone who comes through the doors of a meeting with a desire to stop drinking.
Dilys
Proof-reader
Contents
0 The Twelve Steps
1 Contents and Preamble
2 The Twelve Traditions
3 Editorial
4 From the Governor of HMP Barlinnie
6 Roundabout Wordsearch
7 Don’t Wait Until it’s Too Late
8 Prisons
9 South-West Scotland Regional Forum
10 The ‘Ism’ Prison
13 We Need Your Articles!
14 2026 Diary & Calendar Order Form
15 EURYPAA Glasgow
16-i Conventions and Gatherings
ii-iv Group changes & Intergroups
17 Out and About with Roundabout
18 The Roundabout Interview
21 My Croatian Convention
23 Answers to Wordsearch
25 Roundabout Subscription Form
26 Literature Extracts
30 Roundabout Sub-committee Vacancy
32 Photographs for Roundabout
33 The Twelve Concepts