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by Stephen Drake ISBN: 978 1 84747 001 0 Published: 2006Pages: 27Description This is the true story of a young man who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder(OCD). This condition drives him to crime and to periods in custody. The author writes with vigour of his dealings with other people, especially in a young offender's institution. This is a raw book, and the prose style mirrors that rawness. Stephen has a terrible fear, among others, of harming an elderly lady. Having to continually check that each and every elderly woman he passed in the street or came into everyday contact had not suffered at his hands. He had no urge to harm them, he just had terrible fears that he might. He was obsessed with 'not' being responsible for any harm to an elderly lady. Life, in general society, became unbearable! He decided that prison was the answer to his prayers; a safe haven. No old women in prison! A life of crime, with little regard to detection, followed. Life in British jails as a young prisoner and terms in young offenders instituitions are described. You might feel pity or, perhaps, disgust when reading his unusual, but true, story.About the Author Having written this book over a long period of time was quite satisfied wih the end result! Felt the illness was described fairly well and, hopefully, life as a young offender. Book Extract He didn't care. Maybe that wasn't true. As the words of fury passed his lips his left hand grasped his right. He knew the reason - he certainly wasn't going to strike an old woman. No chance. The road was quiet with fields on one side and trees the other. "Did you hit that woman?" Charlie asked himself yet again. "Can you remember punching her?" He replayed the moment in his mind attempting to ease his fears. "No, I can't picture myself clumping her," he answered his own question. "What if you did harm her in some way," the voice, presumably his, forced an entrance. Charlie, too concerned with his own predicament, ignored the distant sounds of laughter. He failed to notice the three youths until he walked into them. Maybe he had seen them but, being so on edge, didn't care. He wouldn't even deny walking into the group on purpose. What had he got to lose? "Watch it, mate," shouted one of the group, "why can't you look where you're going?" "Get fucked," Charlie growled, in no mood for sensible suggestions. He wasn't scared of their reaction, his mind being filled with more urgent matters. It wouldn't have bothered the young man if he finished the evening in a casualty department; all he craved was reassurance that he hadn't assaulted the elderly female. While that concern occupied his thoughts, nothing else was of importance. This single-minded approach exasperated the stocky youth - it took a great deal to infuriate Charlie but where much had failed, his deranged thought process succeeded. He attempted to push pass the gang who prevented his progress. Caution had been thrown to the wind - why should he show respect to others when his own mind was intent on destruction.

'Underneath the Flesh' is the brave, honest and shocking account of a lifetime battle against morbid obestity and compulsive overeating. Betrayed by her abusive father and grieving for her late mother it was almost inevitable that a young Sandra would develop an addiction to conceal her pain. For Sandra the addiction was food. At her largest Sandra weighed 28 stone; her weight became a shield, protecting her from the grief she felt for a lost childhood. As well as her affection-less, austere and often brutul childhood, Sandra recounts the traumatic birth of her son Edward, her failed and loveless marriange and her desperate attempts to lose weight and beat her compulsion. Despite all these problems and a life of true hardship and pain, Sandra remains positive. This book ends on a note of hope. At a time when obesity is rarely out of the headlines, this is an extraordinarily strong, poignant and timely book.

Description Novelist, poet and musician Jeremy Gluck draws on his experiences of growing up in post-War Canada in a breath-takingly beautiful and poignant account of his battle with bipolar disorder (manic depression). He contrasts a depiction of his descent into depression and madness with the narrative innocence of his childhood. Victim of Dreams can help others to understand what it is like to develop, have and/or survive a severe and enduring mental health condition. More than anything else service users want empathy: Manuals and guides are essential, good medical support crucial, medication crucial of course, but those with serious MH conditions are so plagued by feeling misunderstood and isolated that empathy is the key. Exploring in anecdotal and lay terms the genetic and environmental genesis of the disorder in me, the book is written in a highly professional literary style, including vivid memoir and especially penetrating accounts of depression and manic delusion - drawn largely from journals kept at the time and therefore vivid in their evocation of mania and depression - and is a new kind of survivor book that eschews "misery" for memory and asks, again and again, searching questions about the nature of our lives, minds, memory and capacity to endure what is, after all, a part of ourselves seemingly set to destroy another, more benign part. The book is in three parts or "lives". The first part is my innocence, when the illness lies dormant but shadowing. In the second part, I wrestle with madness as the illness reveals itself. Coming from a more balanced and objective viewpoint, in the final part I review both having brought myself back. I can now show myself as someone different, neither the innocent nor the madman, and importantly not the person I have been accused of being.About the AuthorI am 49, an expatriate Canadian with a background in the arts, now working in the voluntary sector in Wales as a mental health information and research worker. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2002. My lifelong experience as a published writer/author has equipped me ideally to write an insightful literary account of my life leveraged to the impact upon it of the illness, my eventual diagnosis and coda heralding my recovery.