Reading's best known literary connection is with Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned in Reading Gaol from 1895 to 1897.
The epitaph is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol after his court case.
The minute he went to prison he wrote one overtly sentimental work, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol."
It is based on the life of Oscar Wilde "looking back from his time imprisoned in Reading Gaol."
The text for this scene is taken from Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
John Carter was sentenced to death and hanged at Reading Gaol on 3 December 1893.
Nor is his stay in Reading Gaol, where the row of prisoners on a treadmill suggests a most unpleasant health club, rendered with great poignancy.
There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating prison life.
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol from 1895-97.
