Hi Zoe,

I also found it much easier once I’d seen a photo of ‘the quilt’. I’ve got as far as buying some fabric for the centre panel – and that’s it….

Arlene

Hi Zoe,

I would agree – modern mental health issues seem to be becoming ever more acute, and while there’s a lack of money, I also wonder whether we know how to fix them?

Arlene

I didn’t mind the cassette tape and looked forward to the chapters where we found out about Maria’s life in her own words. I enjoyed the book but I didn’t like Caroline much. Seeing the quilt on Liz Trenow’s website helped me, I couldn’t understand why they were having so much trouble getting to the ‘lozenges’. I think I’d like to have a go making…[Read more]

I think society is more tolerant of some issues today. I don’t think there is enough support given (money from the government to use in the community, not institutions) for modern mental health issues.

Maria, that’s absolutely fascinating! I’ve seen a couple of documentaries which indicated that this practice wasn’t uncommon, but it’s always interesting to know of a first-hand source. I find it frightening that such things ever occurred – and presumably were though to be ‘for the best’ at the time.
I wonder if there are similar modern…[Read more]

Maria,
Such a waste, over something that must have been tough enough for them in the first place without there families locking them up, really heartbreaking.

Lots of love
Francesxx

I enjoyed this book.
Really sad thing is that when I was a medical student doing my psychiatry block there still were mental hospital patients then in their 80s (1981/2) who had been admitted by their families because they were unmarried and pregnant . At around this time ‘care in the community’ was being talked about, my teachers pointed out tha…[Read more]

Sorry Arlene,
Mine is still not here, think its coming by carrier pigeon 🙂

Interesting points, Heather. I have to admit that the use of the cassette recorder was, as you say ‘a little clunky (I found myself wondering why the interviewer hadn’t used a dictaphone, and why the interviews weren’t transcribed in the first place if they were for a Ph.D.!). However, I did enjoy the different narrative voices. Sometimes it…[Read more]

Still waiting for my book to arrive.

Francesxx

This is probably not a book I would have chosen but I did find it a page turner! I thought the use of the interview tapes as a method of getting over the information was a bit clunky, but effective enough.
The plot was just about conceivable, but I knew immediately who Margaret was, those descriptions of the highly intelligent blond man with a…[Read more]