Tom Lee, The Bullet

In The Bullet, Tom Lee attempts to understand what happened to his parents – both were patients at Severalls Psychiatric Hospital in Colchester at different times in their lives – and what happened to him. It is a powerful and deeply personal exploration of mental health, and an indelible account of the legacy of familial illness and living with a fracturing mind.

Tom Lee will be in conversation with author and radio/podcast producer, Chris Penhall.

This event will include an audience Q&A and after the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by the author.

 

 

Saturday 7th June, 2.00pm
Venue: Samaritans, Walsingham Road Community Hall, 34 Walsingham Road, Colchester, CO2 7BN
Tickets: £10 / £8 Concessions (Students, Under 27s, Unwaged and Samaritans volunteers)
Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

 

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The Bullet: A Memoir of Madness, Family and the Asylums of the Past by Tom Lee

A powerful and deeply personal exploration of mental health, and an indelible account of the legacy of familial illness and living with a fracturing mind.

Like many people, Tom Lee remembers the presence – somewhere out of sight, on the outskirts of town – of the local psychiatric hospital. It was a place that inspired jokes, rumours and dread, a place where the strange and deranged were kept away. But among those people were, at different times, Tom’s own parents.

Afterwards, those times were not much spoken about and before long the hospital closed, as part of the nationwide shutting down of psychiatric institutions. For many years, Tom believed that he had dodged the bullet of mental illness that had marked the lives of his parents. But then, quite out of the blue, he has a crisis of his own and finds himself returning to the past for clues.

The Bullet is an attempt to piece together and understand what happened to his parents and what happened to him. It is also a story about how we have tried and spectacularly failed to care for people suffering with mental illness, and about the terrifying fragility and unknowability of the human mind.

‘The Bullet offers a deeply moving personal account of what it is like to live with mental illness, the terror and mystery of why and how we break – and it also grapples with the politics of mental health care’ – Sophie McBain, New Statesman

‘A bold, brave and clear-headed account of the affliction of crushing anxiety. Tom Lee writes with great humanity; I felt – and lived – every word of it’ – Benjamin Myers

 

Order a copy of The Bullet by Tom Lee from the Essex Book Festival online bookshop at bookshop.org

 

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Tom Lee

Tom Lee is the author of The Alarming Palsy of James Orr, a novel, and Greenfly, a collection of short stories. He lives in South London and teaches at Goldsmiths.

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Chris Penhall

Chris Penhall writes uplifting stories set in gorgeous places.

A member of The Society of Authors and the Romantic Novelists Association, she has written six books, the first of which, The House That Alice Built won the Choc-Lit Search for a Star Competition in 2019. She is currently working on her 7th book.

A freelance radio and podcast producer, Chris worked for BBC Essex for many years and was an Associate Producer for the Richard and Judy Podcast for Jibba Jabba Pods for 9 years. She presents and produces a community radio show called Books and Tunes, a podcast called Chris and Lizzie’s Random Bookish Chats with fellow author Lizzie Chantree, and also runs writing workshops.

You can find more information about her on her website www.chrispenhall.co.uk
Instagram: christinepenhall
or Facebook as ChrisPenhallWriter
https://linktr.ee/chrispenhall

 

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You may also be interested in…

Robin Ince, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, is taking place at this venue straight before this event.

Saturday 7th June, 12.00pm
Robin Ince, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal

Comedian, author and one half of BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince will be joining us for a quirky dive into the world of human behaviour. A powerful, personal exploration of anxiety, ADHD and neurodiversity, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal reminds us all – no matter how weird we feel – that it’s okay to be a little different.

Complimentary coffee and cake on arrival.

Find out more at essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/normally-weird-and-weirdly-normal/.

 

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