Mind Book of the Year shortlist announced

Embargoed until: 00:01hrs Friday 29 April 2005

Shortlisted authors consider mental health from personal, academic and historical standpoints

Today mental health charity Mind announces the shortlist for the twenty fourth Mind Book of the Year Award. The annual award celebrates literature that contributes to public understanding of mental health issues. Contenders for the 2005 prize are drawn from a wide range of subject matter pulling together genres as diverse as memoir, popular science and fiction. Previous prizewinners have included Hilary Mantel and Michael Ignatieff.

The 2005 winner will be announced on Wednesday 18 May at the awards ceremony at Glazier’s Hall on London’s South Bank, hosted by Mind’s President Lord Melvyn Bragg. The eleventh Journalist of the Year and the Champion of the Year will also be announced at the event. 

The Book of the Year judges, Fay Weldon, Blake Morrison and Michèle Roberts, will attend a preview reading at Foyles Bookshop on Thursday
12 May featuring the six shortlisted books:

George and Sam
by Charlotte Moore (Penguin)
"I wrote George and Sam not to bewail the 'loss' of the 'normal' children they were never meant to be, but, despite the problems, to celebrate them for what they are." Charlotte Moore charts her experiences as mother to three boys, two of whom are autistic. Combining the warmth of personal memoir with the most recent research into the condition, it offers a vivid portrait of a fascinating family.

Brainwashing: The science of thought control
by Kathleen Taylor (Oxford University Press)
This book addresses what many others on the subject have ignored: real brains. Research scientist Kathleen Taylor combines the latest findings in social psychology and neuroscience to explore how opinions can be changed, whether by persuasion, deceit, or force.

The Cruel Mother: A family ghost laid to rest
by Siân Busby (Short Books)
An event in Siân Busby’s family history cast long shadows over her own life; an exploration of the past has helped her come to terms with the present. This insightful memoir shows us the changing attitudes to post-natal depression and women's mental health over the last century.

Only Human
by Susie Boyt (Headline Book Publishing)
Marriage guidance counsellor Marjorie loves creating harmony out of discord; it has become somewhat of an obsession. Widowed early in life, she endures a grief she does not dare acknowledge. This humane and darkly comic novel takes a look at a life which is papering over cracks that cannot be hidden forever.

Memory Fitness: A guide for successful ageing
by Gilles O. Einstein and Mark. A. McDaniel
(Yale University Press)
This clear and accessible book offers a guide for anyone interested in the science of memory: how it works, how it changes with age, and what you can and cannot do to limit memory decline. 
The authors, both professors of psychology and expert in the field, have included techniques and exercises that translate the latest research findings into practical activities.

The Boy With No Shoes
by William Horwood (Headline Book Publishing)
The bestselling author of the Duncton Wood Chronicles revisits his own painful childhood scarred by rejection and loneliness. This powerful memoir charts a journey of personal survival, in which faith and courage have triumphed over suffering.

Charlotte Moore, Susie Boyt, Kathleen Taylor and Siân Busby will all be present at the Foyles event on 12 May to read from their work. 

The awards form part of the charity’s annual Mind week (14 to 21 May) for which this year’s theme is stress. Stress and Mental Health in the Workplace, a specially commissioned report, will be published on Monday 16 May. The report contains new findings that reveal the impact of stress on the working environment.

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