Set in North West London, Ruth is woken by a scream one night, and later thinks she sees something, on her quiet cul-de-sac. But no one will believe her and she's not sure that she can believe herself, because after the birth of her baby, she experienced post partum psychosis. Her delusions were strong enough …
Phew! How can I describe this book.... I feel exhausted after reading it. The cover of the book hints that it's the story of a man who rescues a magpie and then it becomes the link that leads him to understand his father better. A dual memoir, if you will. The story of two fathers …
I get a lot of emails from various writers and publishers asking me to talk about their book on my blog, and I noticed an interesting trend in my inbox recently. I've had quite a few requests from self published female authors who've written books about growing up in abusive homes or about the stories …
Continue reading Book Trend: Women Self-Publishing Stories of Abusive Childhoods.
Recently, one of my closest friends, who has been struggling with depression for years, told me that she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. One of the things that she said that really resonated with me was that some of her friends had turned away from her and didn't want to know her anymore. It …
The word Bedlam became part of common usage as a slang word for chaos, anarchy and mess, but was originally a well known hospital for those suffering from mental illness. It was established in 1247 and existed at different sites til the 1930's. It's history is the history of the treatment for people who were …
Continue reading Bedlam: London And Its Mad by Catharine Arnold
It seems like there is a glut of books now where two parallel narratives in two times link up to solve the mysteries of the other, one being in the past and the other being in the present. It feels like it's own genre, perhaps. One of the finest examples of this is Sebastian Barry's …
I first met Simon on a film shoot about 5 or 6 years ago. He was brought in as a writer, and I liked the way he was so intelligent and down to earth. He was funny. Catching a train back into central London together, he surprised me by making little quips about Australian politics …
Continue reading Simon Jay’s Bastardography: a memoir of coming out, bullying, and bipolar disorder.
McMurphy is a free spirit and gambler who manages to get transferred to a mental asylum to escape the work unit in prison. But he finds that he's bitten off more than he can chew when he takes on Nurse Ratched. Written in the 60's and set in Oregon, the book says so much about …
Continue reading One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
This was an unusual book, I really enjoyed the mystery of whether the boy could see demons, or only thought he could! The story is about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and how much that has effected the mental health of the people who have lived through trauma there. Which sounds depressing, but it's actually …
Continue reading The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
