I was a bard behind bars, says Doherty

The rock star was jailed for six months in 2003 for breaking into a flat belonging to his then bandmate Carl Barat, and has since been remanded in custody on a series of occasions for other offences.

Today he admitted he was a "bit green" when he first entered HMP Wandsworth and adopted a character inspired by the French poet Paul Verlaine to survive.

"It's a role I had to go into when I went to prison at Wandsworth the first time. I had to go into something.

"I didn't know who I was and I certainly didn't know what I was doing there," he told the Guardian.

"For f **k all I ended up in Wandsworth and really, really I was a bit green."

Doherty, the boyfriend of model Kate Moss, said his stints behind bars at least enabled him to spend a lot of time reading.

But his attempts to read Dostoevsky were hampered by the attentions of his cellmate.

"Crime And Punishment I read. Except my cellmate kept on pulling his shorts down and getting his knob out, and going: 'Is this normal, Pete?' and I'm trying to read," he added.

Doherty is due back in court on 18 October for a review of a drug rehabilitation order.

'Poetry: From Pete Doherty to Andrew Motion' airs tomorrow at 9pm on Artsworld.