‘You accused Mia of being a witch and bewitching your father. Do you remember that? When a young woman is found murdered at the foot of Pendle Hill, the obvious suspect is Will Perkins, a local schizophrenic who recently denounced Mia as a witch and sought her arrest. When DCI Liam Doyle and his team […]
‘My hands were those of a ghost. They were not my own.’ We often talk about how important it is to (metaphorically) walk in someone else’s shoes, but what happens to your sense of self when you can’t walk in your own? This is journalist Nathan Dunne’s account of his experiences with depersonalisation, a form […]
‘People saw me differently in comedy; I found they misinterpreted my shyness as coldness and my almost constant overwhelming anxiety as anger.’ Fern Brady, comedian and Taskmaster alumni, struggled with her mental health for years before accepting that she was autistic and might need people around her – including herself – to make certain adjustments […]
‘We are more alike than different.’ This is the essence of Dr Adshead’s argument: that while it is easier to write off certain criminals as monsters, it is essential to admit their humanity and recognise the value of rehabilitation over our instinctive desire for vengeance. Of course, this is easier said than done, but Dr […]
I loved the premise of this book. Missing schoolgirl Bethan Avery suddenly seems to be writing letters to an agony aunt asking to be rescued, but Bethan went missing nearly twenty years ago and is presumed dead, so this must be a hoax, surely? The police dismiss the letters as a cruel joke, but when […]
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to another person? If your actions resulted in catastrophe, could you bear to face the consequences? Journalist Rebecca Thornton’s debut novel, ‘The Exclusives’, explores the consequences when best friends Josephine and Freya betray one another in their final year at boarding school. What’s it about? Archaeologist Josephine Grey […]
What would life be like if your brother communicated with you through the wind, the waves, the movement of a fox? What would life be like if he communicated with you despite being dead? Meet 19 year old Matthew Homes. He’ll tell you he doesn’t hear voices. But he does hear his brother. ‘I’ll tell […]