Mind Awards 2009: Book of the Year shortlist announced

Posted Monday 6 April 2009

England’s leading mental health charity Mind announced the shortlist for its annual Book of the Year Award on 6 April 2009. The prestigious award, which is now in its 28th year, is a celebration of works of both fact and fiction which raise awareness of the many issues surrounding mental health. The winner will be selected from seven short-listed titles by an expert panel of judges comprising the authors Blake Morrison, Fay Weldon and Michèle Roberts.

The winner will be announced on Thursday 14 May at the Mind Awards ceremony to be held at RIBA, London, hosted by Mind's President Lord Melvyn Bragg. The Mind Journalist of the Year, Mind Student Journalist of the Year and Mind Champion of the Year will also be announced at the event.

The seven shortlisted works are:

Mad, bad and sad: A history of women and the mind doctors from 1800 to the present by Lisa Appignanesi
Lisa Appignanesi’s book charts the understanding and interpretation of women's mental health problems over the past 200 years. Using a number of famous literary and cultural figures such as Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Marilyn Monroe, the book moves through the history of psychology and examines how its evolution has changed our understanding of women's mental health.
(Virago)

Coda by Simon Gray
Simon Gray offers a candid account of life following a diagnosis of cancer and a limited life expectancy. Simon is as funny as he is heart-rending as he recalls, while on holiday in Crete, the scans and consultations that have dominated the previous months of his life. Alongside this, he offers digressions on everything from lying to the maître d’ and concerns about tipping, to contemplating suicide and his new-found obsession with obituaries.
(Faber & Faber: Granta)

The new black: Mourning, melancholia and depression by Darian Leader
In this important and groundbreaking book, acclaimed psychoanalyst and writer Darian Leader urges us to look beyond the catch-all concept of depression to explore the deeper, unconscious ways in which we respond to the experience of loss. In so doing, we can loosen the grip it may have upon our lives.
(Penguin)

The devil within: A memoir of depression by Stephanie Merritt
Depression is on the rise, with one in six members of the British population experiencing it. Merritt hopes that through her open and witty account she will help encourage people to approach their doctors and ask questions, to try different treatments and above all to understand that their depression is an illness, not a personal failing to be ashamed of and concealed.
(Vermilion)

The myth of the chemical cure: A critique of psychiatric drug treatment by Dr Joanna Moncrieff
Joanna Moncrieff puts forward her argument that the traditional view that psychiatric drugs correct chemical imbalances is flawed and exposes it as a dangerous fraud. She traces the emergence of this view and the way it supported the vested interests of the psychiatric profession, the pharmaceutical industry and the modern state.
(Palgrave Macmillan)

The boy with the topknot by Sathnam Sanghera
For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton was confusing. He took for granted his family’s sometimes strange and often difficult behaviour until at the age of 24, Sathnam made a shocking discovery that changed everything. With breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past – from his father’s harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office.
(Penguin)

Coming back to me: The autobiography of Marcus Trescothick by Marcus Trescothick (with Peter Hayter)
In 2005, Marcus Trescothick, became one of only 12 England cricket players in the past 20 years to experience the ultimate success of an Ashes victory. In Coming Back To Me he speaks for the first time about how the pressures of top level cricket began to tear him apart and how he fought to hide his turmoil from colleagues and the media behind the sham of a mystery virus.
(HarperSport)

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