Chipmunkapublishing
Newsletter #2
Contents
|
Contents |
1 |
|
Hello From Jason and Chipmunk |
2 |
|
Reviews by reviewers |
3-4 |
|
Chipmunka Booklist |
5 |
|
Publication
of The Necessity of Madness - by John Breeding |
6-7 |
|
New
Publication of Don’t Look Back in Anger - by Phillip Pettican |
8-9 |
|
Mad Pride flyer and feature |
10-11 |
|
Publication
of Poems of Survival - by |
12 |
|
New
Publication of Loves is a Spider’s Web - by Queen Irena |
13 |
|
Letters Page |
14 |
|
Big Issue Feature 1 |
15-16 |
|
Feature on |
17 |
|
|
|
|
|
19 |
|
Big Issue Feature 2 |
20-21 |
|
Website Update and A Can of Madness the
Play feature and Box Office |
22- 23 |
|
Mental Health Today Interviews with
Chipmunka authors |
24 -26 |
|
|
27 |
|
“Destress” Advert and Mascom Productions
Advert |
28 |
|
Feedback from the launch of Love Is a
Spider’s Web by Queen Irena |
29 |
Hello from
I am delighted to bring you our second newsletter. We are pleased to be able to feature a variety of material in this edition. A lot has been going on since our last newsletter went out on 3rd of November 2003. Most importantly for those authors among you we are now accepting manuscripts again and intend to accept manuscripts throughout 2004. Anyone who would like to submit their material should follow very closely the instructions on the contact us page on our website at
http://www.chipmunkapublishing.com
All potential authors should be aware that Chipmunkapublishing has limited resources and the success of a published book will depend on the ability that each author has for self-promotion. Books will be published on the merit of their content but also on the ability of the author’s to be able to self-promote.
We have also had two book launches and their feedback is given in this issue. Tracey Dawson, widow of
celebrity Les Dawson attended the book launch of Jean Taylor in
Chipmunkapublishing has teamed up with Robert Dellar from Madpride to bring the Madpride Anthology back into circulation. The book is dedicated to Pete Shaugnessey, the inspirational service user who so sadly took his own life last year. Tragedies such as this are a reminder that we all need support. Organisations that are involved in mental health need to be pro-active and work together to ensure that service users receive help when they need it most.
Selected
are a number of Press articles that show Chipmunkapublishing and its authors in
2003. The two articles in The Big Issue deal with the aims and objectives of
our organisation. The Mental Health Today feature shows what the authors gain
through writing and having their work published. Other publications include an
interview in the Sunday Times, The Sunday Express and the
During the last two months we have been approached by TV documentaries, established film directors, TV presenters, the government, chief executives and service users, encouraging us in raising awareness of mental health, and showing appreciation of the value of publishing work written by service users, carers and those that work in mental health. We feel it is our duty to explain to the public how everything is, in effect, a mental health issue. In this manner we can defeat the prejudice that surrounds those of us with mental health issues, and break down the last taboo.
Please
also look at the new pages on the Chipmunkapublishing website. This includes consultancy,
co-publishing, films and options to donate online.
Feedback about the newsletter is very much appreciated. Please email your views and comments to us at info@chipmunkapublishing.com. Tell us what you like or what you don’t like about our newsletter and we will happily take it on board in our subsequent issues.
Quick Reviews
A Can of Madness by
I read
your book, 'A can of madness' yesterday and it is the most moving
And
personally affecting book I have ever read. I guess you could say that you have
helped one 17 year old with depression, as unfortunately, I am exactly that.
The book made me realise for the first time, despite having the illness for
over 7 years on and off that there are other people out there who have the same
feelings of loneliness and suicide as I do and that there are ways that this
can be if not stopped, reduced and helped.
Eleanor
Whittall
My friend
who is in hospital at the moment has just finished reading A Can of Madness (he
is bipolar, although the diagnosis changes to schizophrenic sometimes). He has
just called me to say it has changed his life & taught him not to feel so
ashamed. It’s a great step forward for him to say that, so thanks.
Kirsty
Morrison
It is a pleasure to see this incredibly vivid and moving
memoir come to print. I hope it will go on to inspire others whose lives are
touched by manic depression
H. Hill - MIND
Don't
Look Back In Anger by Phillip Pettican
Phil’s
story is touching and poignant. He was an ordinary guy, serving in the Navy and
working as a builder, before mental distress turned his world upside down.
Love
Is a Spider's Web by Queen Irena
…Thank you
so much for your wonderful book ‘Love is a Spider’s Web’. Thought I would just
express to you in writing to encourage and inspire you as you have me… I am
sure one day soon your book will not only be published, but that it will also
be made into a box office hit!... Keep up the good work. I am very proud of
you. You are truly a High Priestess to look up to. Don’t stop writing the world
needs you.
Jenessa
Qua – Performer at the National Theatre
Once you
start reading, it feels like a roller-coaster journey leading you through paths
that make your muscles tense, relax and gives the ‘Ah!’ feeling. A truly
memorable read.
Velmer
McGregor – Teacher and community activist
The
World Is Full Of Laughter by
Dolly’s
powerful and moving memoir tells her terribly difficult story in an
astonishingly frank and honest way which, don’t ask me how, somehow manages a
streak of irony and dare I say it, even humour. It is an incredibly honest and
determined account to record her personal struggle with mental illness.
Raw,
harrowing and compelling. This is a worthy addition to the new genre of mad
memoirs.
Professor
Phil Barker,
This is a
story about mental health carer, survivor and activist. Jean is an inspiration
for women who have experienced domestic violence. I am full of admiration for
her.
This
autobiography also exposes the profound lack of civil liberties for the mental
health commission and protective statute and no proper community care.
The
Necessity of Madness by John Breeding
John
Breeding PH.D has woven his own thoughts into a wide array of sources to expose
the shadow of modern psychiatry. More importantly he provides clear information
and guidance for positive perspectives that support human transformation.
Jim Moore
- Counsellor with the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
John
Breeding's Necessity of Madness is a work of genius. He has a unique
understanding of the damage that psychiatry causes society.
Chipmunkapublishing
Booklist
A Can of Madness by
This heartfelt and mind blowing
autobiography replaces Prozac Nation and an Unquiet Mind as the most in depth
writing on reliving depression whilst taking you as close to the manic mind as
you can possibly get.
The World Is Full of Laughter by
Dolly's outstanding memoir describes
how she was an actor from an early age surviving childhood abuse and was
diagnosed with schizophrenia, then manic depression.
The Necessity of Madness by John Breeding:
ISBN 09542218 7 7
A compelling philosophy of
‘anti-psychiatry’ by an American professor who is, himself, a psychiatrist.
This book is an educational tool for the British Mental Health Movement.
Poems of Survival by
Manic Depressive and Christian
Love is a Spider’s Web by Queen
Irena: ISBN 1 904697 00 3
This is an inspirational tale about
a wife, raising seven children, struggling to maintain sanity in a loveless
marriage.
Don’t Look Back In Anger by Phil
Pettican: ISBN 0 9542218 6 9
This is a chilling and excellently
written story about the realities that living with Schizophrenia brings.
Who Cares? By Jean Taylor: ISBN 0
954 2218 5 0
Jean Taylor suffered depression and
cared for her mother with manic depression whilst putting up with an abusive
husband - But not for long.
Madpride Anthology by 24
Service Users: ISBN 09525 744 2 X
Big Issue
‘book of the month’ when released in 1999, the Madpride anthology is a
celebration of mad culture. The reissue of this book is dedicated to the late
Pete Shaugnessey, a leader of the
Self Harm by Louise
Roxanne Pembroke: ISBN 1-904697-04-6
Self harm is inexplicable
to most of us. This book gives us a clear picture of what self harmers go
through.
Why Me? By Tony Hurley: ISBN 1-904697-01-01. Despite his
illness, a recurrent theme is Tony’s hopefulness, drive and determination in
work and academia – he has made huge achievements and demonstrates persistence
I working towards his goals. Anna Solly – Clinical Psychologist
To order from our website http://www.chipmunkapublishing.com
Publication of
by John
Breeding
John Breeding, PHD has woven his own thoughts into
a wide array of sources to expose the shadow of modern
psychiatry. More importantly he provides clear information
and guidance for positive perspectives that support human
transformation. Jim Moore – Counsellor
with the Texas
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
I cannot emphasize it enough. The most important
thing
about Psychiatry is that it is inherently coercive. Society
has given institutional psychiatry a mandate to maintain
the status quo. Society gives psychiatry a power to violate an
individual’s most sacred human rights in a way that no
other agency, even the police can legally do… madness is
at best a metaphor. Extract from John’s
book.
ISBN: 0 9542218 77
£ 30 in book shops, £ 22 offer online
Chipmunkapublishing publishes books written by
people with a mental illness and their carers. We work to reduce stigma and
discrimination on mental health by showing how people feel, and how they can
recover, when their lives have been turned upside down by mental illness.
Titles are available to order from the
website and from 4.5 million bookshops worldwide. Alternatively cheques can be
made payable to Chipmunkapublishing and sent to
There are discounts on multiple orders
for wholesalers, government agencies, NHS trusts, hospital wards, pharmacies,
and businesses and organisations that work with people with mental health
problems. Anyone interested in multiple
orders (over 30 books) should email us at info@chipmunkapublishing.com.
The Necessity of
Madness
by John Breeding
Book
Extract
"You
may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will live as one." -- John Lennon
Imagine no coercion. Imagine a
world of complete respect for yourself and for all other people, all forms of
life. Imagine a world of people guided by a knowing of themselves as spiritual
beings, full of the spirit of love and truth. Imagine a wisdom which
understands that the inherent nature of human beings is that we are loving,
cooperative, zestful, completely connected with each other and with all of
life. Imagine a world of wise humans who understand the nature of human
distress, and that the effects of being physically or emotionally hurt include
deviation from our inherent goodness into patterns of rigidity involving
thoughtless doing of harm to self and others. Further imagine that wisdom,
including a clarity and respect for the natural, built-in ways we have of
healing ourselves of these effects, and a knowing of ways and means to aid and
encourage this natural process of healing.
Imagine a world of adults who take full responsibility not only for themselves
but also for the development of their children and the healing of their fellow
adults who have been hurt. Imagine a world where people enjoy the visible gifts
of our physical universe, but value even more highly the invisible gifts of
spirit such as love, wisdom, truth and compassion.
Imagine a world of people who understand that the journey of a soul begins with
the need of a child to develop mastery of the physical and social realms, and
the importance of a tribe to nurture and provide stability as the energy of
spirit is so fully invested in the world of form and relationship. Imagine
further that these same people also understand that, once childhood mastery is
developed, at the same time as the adolescent develops even greater mastery of
the tribe's social conditions he also experiences the tell-tale yearnings of
the soul to master the inner life. Imagine the profound understanding of mature
adults that the adolescent is going through a necessary process of questioning
tribal beliefs and tribal authority as she begins the most important next step
of spiritual maturity - that is, to become an independent individual who is not
ruled by external authority, but by the authority of her own inner truth”.
John Breeding PH.D has woven his own thoughts
into a wide array of sources to expose the shadow of modern psychiatry. More
importantly he provides clear information and guidance for positive
perspectives that support human transformation.
Jim
Moore - Counsellor with the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental
Retardation.
New Publication of
Don’t Look Back In
Anger
by Phillip
Pettican
‘Don’t Look Back In
Anger’ is a chilling story on the
realities that the diagnosis of Schizophrenia brings.
The more people that are brave enough to step the more
we can promote a positive image on mental health.
Only then will the mental health genre of literature be
fulfilled.
Phil’s story is touching
and poignant. He was an ordinary
guy, serving in the Navy and working as a builder, before
mental distress turned his world upside down.
ISBN: 0 954221 86 9
£ 10 in book shops, £ 12 online
Chipmunkapublishing publishes books written by people with a mental illness and their
carers. We work to reduce stigma and discrimination on mental health by showing
how people feel, and how they can recover, when their lives have been turned
upside down by mental illness.
Titles are available to order from the
website and from 4.5 million bookshops worldwide. Alternatively cheques can be
made payable to Chipmunkapublishing and sent to
There are discounts on multiple orders
for wholesalers, government agencies, NHS trusts, hospital wards, pharmacies,
and businesses and organisations that work with people with mental health
problems. Anyone interested in multiple
orders (over 30 books) should email us at info@chipmunkapublishing.com.
Don’t Look Back
In Anger – By Philip Pettican
Up until then I had not felt too bad, I was used to a lot of symptoms so
I had learned to live with them, but as the excitement of being in
For the first
few days I stayed close to the hotel, restricting myself to the beach and
visiting the pub. Seeing Helen was the highlight of every day and I made sure
she told me what shift she was on in advance. I waited until the weekend to
play my trump card which was ringing up the couple whose name I had been given
as a contact before I left
On the Sunday it was a very hot day. I caught the bus as instructed and
alighted in the centre of
My experience on
the radio by Phillip Pettican
On the morning of world Mental Health Day 2003 I was nervous. I have never had much confidence – thanks to my serious ‘mental health’ problem and waiting to be led into the studios of BBC Radio Norfolk didn’t help much. Two weeks previously I had taken a copy of my book ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ into the studios in the hope of getting publicity for its forthcoming release on October 10th. Now, here I was sitting opposite Louise Priest waiting to be interviewed about my autobiography. Louise is very well known locally because she used to present the local news show on T.V. She is a very nice lady and she did her best to put me at ease. Despite the nerves I think I answered the questions quite well. She was mainly interested in my illness and its history. As fellow sufferers will confirm, schizophrenia is a very difficult illness to explain but I soldiered on and hoped I was giving an interesting account of my story as related in my book. At the end Louise gave me a hug and said I did very well and wished me well for the future. When out if the building I lit a cigarette and gave a sigh of relief – glad it was over!
Mad Pride flyer
and feature: Review by Guardian
The Guardian
HAMLET:
Ay, marry, why
was he sent into
FIRST CLOWN:
Why, because he
was mad; he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, 'tis no great
matter there.
"It is important to get inside the heads of the
mad," said Roy Porter in Mind Forg'd Manacles, his study of the treatment
of the insane in Restoration to Regency England. "For one thing, their
thought-worlds throw down a challenge...for another; if we are to understand
the treatment of the mad, we must not only listen to pillars of society...
their charges must be allowed a right of reply."
And here it is: an anthology of 24 authors describing
their internal condition, the treatments they've been put on, and how they have
(or have not) coped. From the blurb: "Mad Pride is set to become the first
great civil liberties movement of the 21st century. Sick of discrimination marginalisation, medication and being
treated like shit, psychiatric patients are preparing to rise from the ghettos
and make the world a fit place to live in.
The introduction
points out:
"This book is published at a time when the British government is proposing to enact one of the most despicable and shocking threats to civil liberties in living memory," in which Jack Straw promises to save us from all the loonies by locking them up before they've even done anything wrong. ("We are all born mad,” said Beckett; "some of us remain so.")
The surprising thing about this book is how compelling it is. Real madness, I thought, was not that interesting; and one of its most depressing attributes is the tendency of the mad to write any old thing, at ostentatious length. A pathological condition is mistaken for insight. But, in context - that is, in a book written largely by the mad, and not as some hopeful manuscript landing on the desk of a reputable publisher - the pieces work. I do not want to single any out in particular - for one thing, I have no desire to be pestered by someone who thinks that this book has been noticed because he or she set fire to a photo of Aleister Crowley in a laundry cupboard of Friern Barnet Hospital - but the life stories of these people are affecting despite the second-hand nature of their hallucinations.
There is an anomalously
large number of bus drivers represented here, which has made my bus journeys
more interesting, I can tell you. There is even a contributor from
Meanwhile, think on one of the verses from Robert Burton's Frontispiece to The Anatomy of Melancholy:
But see the
Madman rage downe right
With furious lookes, a gastly sight.
Naked in chaines bound doth he lye,
And roares amaine he knows not why?
Observe him, for as in a glasse,
Thine angry portraiture it was.
His picture keepe still in thy praesence,
Twixt him and thee, ther's no difference.
New Publication of
by
honest. It takes the reader on an emotional journey,
at times painful and at others, full of joy.
Behind Sue’s writing shines the power of faith, hope
and courage.
life path. We return, footsore and heart-weary, to stand
beside her as she diligently polishes the mirror of her own
reflection. And we are glad”. Professor
Phil Barker,
ISBN: 0 9542218 9 3
£ 10 in book shops, £ 12 online
Chipmunkapublishing publishes books written by people with a mental illness and their
carers. We work to reduce stigma and discrimination on mental health by showing
how people feel, and how they can recover, when their lives have been turned
upside down by mental illness.
Titles are available to order from the
website and from 4.5 million bookshops worldwide. Alternatively cheques can be
made payable to Chipmunkapublishing and sent to
There are discounts on multiple orders
for wholesalers, government agencies, NHS trusts, hospital wards, pharmacies,
and businesses and organisations that work with people with mental health
problems. Anyone interested in multiple
orders (over 30 books) should email us at info@chipmunkapublishing.com.
New Publication of
Love is a Spider’s Web
by Queen
Irena
Spider’s Web’. Thought I would just express to you in
writing to encourage and inspire you as you have me…
I am sur one day soon your book will not only be published,
but that it will also be made into a box office hit!...
Keep up the good work. I am very proud of you. You are
truly a High Priestess to look up to. Don’t stop writing the
world needs you. Jenessa Qua – Performer
at
The National Theatre
Once you start reading, it feels like a roller-coaster
journey
leading you through paths that make your muscles tense,
relax and gives the ‘Ah!’ feeling. A truly memorable read.
Velmer McGregor – Teacher and community
activist
ISBN: 1 904697 00 3
£ 10 in book shops, £ 12 online
Chipmunkapublishing
publishes books written by people with a mental illness and their carers. We
work to reduce stigma and discrimination on mental health by showing how people
feel, and how they can recover, when their lives have been turned upside down
by mental illness.
Titles are available to order from the
website and from 4.5 million bookshops worldwide. Alternatively cheques can be
made payable to Chipmunkapublishing and sent to
There are discounts on multiple orders
for wholesalers, government agencies, NHS trusts, hospital wards, pharmacies,
and businesses and organisations that work with people with mental health
problems. Anyone interested in multiple
orders (over 30 books) should email us at info@chipmunkapublishing.com.
Letters Page
“I’m a 27 year old from
R.E. (Reading)
I have just finished reading your book “A Can of
Madness”. My Daughter Nina (age 25) suffers from Bi-polar. I think I’ll give
her the book to read now, if she wishes it. It’s great to know that one is not
alone. Everything in your book is so familiar…I cannot agree with you more
about the system and some of the doctors and nurses etc. But there are some good
ones too. You found yours and Nina has found hers… Just to let you know I heard
you on the radio. I thought how brave and wonderful of you to have written this
book.