'Renovating Madness' | poetry | ISBN 978 1 877010 415 | 100 pgs | Nov 2018 | $20 (within Australia)
The history of the treatment of mental illness is a story of neglect and ignorance,
resilience and rebellion, and, in the nineteenth and much of the twentieth
century, outright cruelty. There is much to be learnt from that history. This
poignant and provocative collection is a maverick biography of an institution
established in New Norfolk in Tasmania in 1827, finally closing in 2001. The
poems, narratives, reflections, records past and present collude to create
powerful reminders of forgotten or forsaken lives and the impetus to treat
mental illness with compassion and open-mindedness.
Sarah Day