Mind on Fire

<p><b>Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019</b><br><br><br>'[A] <b>painfully intense</b> <b>courageous</b> and<b> gripping</b> account of [Fanning's] journey to the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave and instructive book.' <i>Irish Times</i><br><br>'<b>Extraordinary</b>. An account of mental illness grief delusions homelessness a fractured family relationship ... and all while trying to recover and create. <b>Superb writing on a frequently difficult subject</b>.' Sin&#233;ad Gleeson <br><br><br>Arnold Thomas Fanning had his first experience of depression during adolescence following the death of his mother. Some ten years later an up-and-coming playwright he was overcome by mania and delusions. Thus began a terrible period in which he was often suicidal increasingly disconnected from family and friends sometimes in trouble with the law and homeless in London.<br><br>Drawing on his own memories the recollections of people who knew him when he was at his worst and medical and police records Arnold Thomas Fanning has produced a beautifully written devastatingly intense account of madness - and recovery to the point where he has not had any serious illness for over a decade and has become an acclaimed playwright. Fanning conveys the consciousness of a person living with mania psychosis and severe depression with a startling precision and intimacy. <i>Mind on Fire </i>is the gripping sometimes harrowing and ultimately uplifting testament of a person who has visited hellish regions of the mind.<br><br><br>'Arnold Thomas Fanning offers the most vivid and unflinching window into the mind of someone who is in the throes of madness ... It was like nothing I'd read before' <b>Rick Edwards</b><br><br><i>'Mind on Fire </i>is a truly <b>powerful arresting haunting </b>account. Arnold Thomas Fanning has reckoned with the darkest matter of his heart and mind and I challenge anyone not to be moved by that.' <b>Sara Baume author of <i>Spill Simmer Falter Wither</i> and <i>A Line Made by Walking</i></b><br><br>'In this strange and singular book Arnold Thomas Fanning mercilessly excavates the infernal underworld of his own years of madness. As reminiscent as it occasionally is of John Healy's <i>The Grass Arena</i> and even of Orwell's <i>Down and Out in Paris and London</i> the book is ultimately not quite like anything else I've read and <b>brought me as close to the lived reality of mental illness as I have ever been</b>. It's a significant achievement: a painful inexorable work of autobiography whose existence is its own form of redemption.' <b>Mark O'Connell Baillie Gifford Prize-shortlisted author of <i>To Be a Machine<br></i></b><br><br>'This is an extraordinary memoir about how it feels to be depressed delusional desperate' <i>The Observer</i> <br><br>'Incredibly important' Emilie Pine author of <i>Notes to Self</i><br><br>'A ratcheting pace a tight first-person immediacy and utterly staggering to be a passenger over its entire warped course ... An indelible ground-shaking account' Hilary A White <i>Irish Independent Memoir of the Year Best Reads of 2018</i><br><br>'A spellbinding memoir that should prove both moving and hopefully cathartic for the reader.' <i>RTE Culture</i> <br><b><i><br>'</i></b>Told in tight and immediate first-person and imbued with a startling momentum that ratchets unnervingly Fanning's publishing debut ... is a significant achievement and should be a talking point in publishing this year.' <i>Irish Independent </i><br><br>'Fanning's debut book lays it on the line in a deeply personal and compelling chronicle of his descent into depression and his way back out.' <i>RTE Guide</i><br><br>'Wonderful' Joseph O'Connor <i>Irish Times Books of the Year<br><br>'</i>Unsparingly direct searing and honest ... It is gripping to read and must have been exhausting to live' <i>Medical Independent <br></i><br>'One of the most gripping and revealing memoirs I've read in a long time. A controlled and artful exploration of absolute loss of control an unsettling and at times very moving reconstruction of a period of serious mental illness Mind on Fire is a beautiful book about a terrifying thing.' Mark O'Connell <i>Irish Times Books of the Year</i><br><br>'Gripping' Sin&#233;ad Gleeson <i>Irish Times Books of the Year</i><br><br>'Shocking' Liz Nugent <i>Irish Times Books of the Year</i><br><br>'Poignant beautifully detailed memoir' Sarah Gilmartin <i>Irish Times Best debuts of 2018</i><br><br>'Brave and illuminating' <i>Sunday Business Post</i><br><br>'This is the type of account that not only grips you wholesale as the pages flitter past it also changes your very perception of psychology' Hilary A White <i>Sunday Independent Memoir of the Year</i></p>