Heavy Light

A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing

Heavy Light
Horatio Clare
RRP:
NZ$ 30.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 24.00
Paperback
h198 x 129mm - 352pg
10 Feb 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781529112641
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
Heavy Light is the story of a breakdown- a journey through mania, psychosis and treatment in a psychiatric hospital, and onwards to release, recovery and healing. After a lifetime of ups and downs, Horatio Clare was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. From hypomania in the Alps, to a complete breakdown and a locked ward in Wakefield, this is a gripping account of how the mind loses touch with reality, how we fall apart and how we can be healed - or not - by treatment. A story of the wonder and intensity of the manic experience, as well as its peril and strangeness, it is shot through with the love, kindness, humour and care of those who deal with someone who becomes dangerously ill. Partly a tribute to those who looked after Horatio, from family and friends to strangers and professionals, and partly an investigation into how we understand and treat acute crises of mental health, Heavy Light' s beauty, power and compassion illuminate a fundamental part of human experience. It asks urgent questions about mental health that affect each and every one of us. A ' Book to look out for in 2021' in the Observer' An extraordinary book- deeply moving, darkly funny and hugely powerful' Robert Macfarlane' One of the most brilliant travel writers of our day takes us us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth, and humanity, that, better acquainted with its terrors, we may better face our own' Reverend Richard Coles' A record of the bravest, most perilous, most intrepid journey that any human being can ever make. It is stricken, moving, urgent, crucial . . . A luminous, beautiful achievement' Niall Griffiths
What a gift. . . having such an articulate agent, reporting back from the far edges of the mind -- Megan Agnew * Sunday Times * A shattering journey . . . remarkable -- Sheena Joughin * Times Literary Supplement * Unforgettable -- Rory Sullivan * i * A superb and shining achievement . . . Heavy Light is an odyssey for our times, full of hope in an uncertain future . . . a life-changing experience -- Sue Brooks * Caught by the River * An extraordinary book: deeply moving, darkly funny and hugely powerful. It travels hard country: mania, paranoia, the huge collateral damage of madness. It shows its readers, unforgettably, what it is like to see the world on a "skewed plane". But the star by which it steers is, in the end and above all, love. This book confirms that Horatio Clare is among the most brilliant and compassionate writers of non-fiction I know -- Robert Macfarlane A brave, lit-up account of going mad and getting better, that forensically tracks the footprints of both journeys towards a settlement with the self -- Jeanette Winterson Horatio Clare is a true adventurer and an English original - as vital as Chatwin, as endearing as Withnail. Even when writing about his own breakdown he does so with a poet' s ear, brave journalistic insight and, crucially, no shortage of humour. Heavy Light is a white-knuckle descent whose transcendent theme of mania is timeless and universal -- Benjamin Myers Horatio Clare, whose adventures in the Black Mountains, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Ethiopian Highlands, and the point in the Pacific Ocean furthest on earth from land, have made him one of the most brilliant travel writers of our day, takes us us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth, and humanity, that, better acquainted with its terrors, we may better face our own -- Reverend Richard Coles I tore through Heavy Light, and haven' t been able to stop thinking about it -- Amy Liptrot Compelling, beautifully-written and utterly devastating. A balm in itself -- Katie Law * Evening Standard * Heavy Light is a record of the bravest, most perilous, most intrepid journey that any human being can ever make. It is stricken, moving, urgent, crucial, and deserves to -- and, I don' t doubt, will -- stand alongside such classics of the genre as Solomon' s Noonday Demon, Leader' s What is Madness? , even Frankl' s Man' s Search for Meaning. A luminous, beautiful achievement -- Niall Griffiths A fearless dive into the darks of the mind -- fiercely moving, ruthlessly honest and written with an exquisite care. It is a call for understanding that we all need to hear -- Tom Bullough Clare takes us inside his head in this profound, compelling account of acute mental illness, which is also a love letter to those who cared for and supported him. And as he recovers, Heavy Light turns into a heartfelt quest to understand what happened to him, and how we can heal those similarly afflicted. This book must have been terribly hard to write, but it feels so important he' s done so -- Caroline Sanderson * Bookseller (Book of the Month) * A remarkable tribute both to the depths of human compassion and Clare' s extraordinary gifts as an author, witness and guide -- Dan Richards * Geographical *
Horatio Clare is the bestselling author of numerous books including the memoirs Running for the Hills and Truant and the travel books A Single Swallow, Down to the Sea in Ships, Orison for a Curlew, Icebreaker and The Light in the Dark. His books for children include Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot and Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds. Horatio' s essays and reviews appear on BBC radio and in the Financial Times, the Observer and the Spectator, among other publications. He lives with his family in West Yorkshire.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781529112641
Published: 10 Feb 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 129mm
Spine: 22mm
Weight: 282g
Pages: 352

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