Henry's Demons
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Review
'You close Henry's Demons with a profound sense of gratitude for this family's courage in sharing what they have endured and crafting it into something of use - and of beauty' --Daily Mail
'This joint father-son account of living with schizophrenia will ease the path of affected families while it moves and informs other readers' --Independent
'A frightening, gut-wrenching and fantastical story of a young man's voyage into madness . . . for anyone who appreciates good story-telling and good journalism, and for anyone curious to know what living with demons is really like' --Independent on Sunday
'Henry's Demons never loses sight of the personality, the uniqueness, of the sufferer. It would be impossible not to like Henry, who is candid, touching and often funny . . . Anyone lucky enough to read this book will wish that he continues to get better, and to write' --The Spectator
'Cockburn's account of his son's illness is clear and journalistic. He writes of the unremitting anxiety generated by being told on assignment in Iraq of yet another breakdown, and of the disastrous impacts of successive government policies on mental health provision . . . Henry's Demons is probably the most vivid account you will ever read of what it is to live with a mental illness'
--Literary Review
`A myth-shredding, light-shedding account explores a condition that few present-tense 'insiders' have ever written about . . . A truly remarkable book, and a brave one' --David Mitchell, author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and Cloud Atlas
`Intensely moving . . . There is poetry in this prose: the bipolarity of misery and exaltation that Blake understood' --Christopher Hitchens
'Moving and harrowing' --The Times
'I read this book, page by page, with a heart-thumping sense of recognition . . . and if there is a more lucid contemporary rendition of the experience of fully florid, schizophrenic psychosis than Henry's short, precise chapters in this book, I have not come across it' --Mark Vonnegut, M.D., author of Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So and The Eden Express Observer
'Candid and moving account by father and son of the latter's struggle with schizophrenia'
--Sunday Times
'The Cockburns have done a tremendous service in making their story available in all its horror, tenderness and beauty' --Guardian
'A mind-bending, heart-rending psychological classic' --E. James Lieberman, George Washington University School of Medicine, Library Journal
'Henry's Demons is delicately constructed . . . the power of brave confession combined with skilful research makes it an outstanding double memoir' --Scotsman
'The book's principal strength is that it includes Henry's own testimony. In the preface, Patrick says he thought it important that his son be invited to "defend the reality of his experiences", or at least describe them from the inside. "Only someone suffering from this strange and terrible illness," he writes, "can describe what it is really like"'
--New Statesman
'This joint father-son account of living with schizophrenia will ease the path of affected families while it moves and informs other readers' --Independent
'A frightening, gut-wrenching and fantastical story of a young man's voyage into madness . . . for anyone who appreciates good story-telling and good journalism, and for anyone curious to know what living with demons is really like' --Independent on Sunday
'Henry's Demons never loses sight of the personality, the uniqueness, of the sufferer. It would be impossible not to like Henry, who is candid, touching and often funny . . . Anyone lucky enough to read this book will wish that he continues to get better, and to write' --The Spectator
'Cockburn's account of his son's illness is clear and journalistic. He writes of the unremitting anxiety generated by being told on assignment in Iraq of yet another breakdown, and of the disastrous impacts of successive government policies on mental health provision . . . Henry's Demons is probably the most vivid account you will ever read of what it is to live with a mental illness'
--Literary Review
`A myth-shredding, light-shedding account explores a condition that few present-tense 'insiders' have ever written about . . . A truly remarkable book, and a brave one' --David Mitchell, author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and Cloud Atlas
`Intensely moving . . . There is poetry in this prose: the bipolarity of misery and exaltation that Blake understood' --Christopher Hitchens
'Moving and harrowing' --The Times
'I read this book, page by page, with a heart-thumping sense of recognition . . . and if there is a more lucid contemporary rendition of the experience of fully florid, schizophrenic psychosis than Henry's short, precise chapters in this book, I have not come across it' --Mark Vonnegut, M.D., author of Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So and The Eden Express Observer
'Candid and moving account by father and son of the latter's struggle with schizophrenia'
--Sunday Times
'The Cockburns have done a tremendous service in making their story available in all its horror, tenderness and beauty' --Guardian
'A mind-bending, heart-rending psychological classic' --E. James Lieberman, George Washington University School of Medicine, Library Journal
'Henry's Demons is delicately constructed . . . the power of brave confession combined with skilful research makes it an outstanding double memoir' --Scotsman
'The book's principal strength is that it includes Henry's own testimony. In the preface, Patrick says he thought it important that his son be invited to "defend the reality of his experiences", or at least describe them from the inside. "Only someone suffering from this strange and terrible illness," he writes, "can describe what it is really like"'
--New Statesman
Product Description
On a cold February day two months after his 20th birthday, Henry waded into the lethally cold Newhaven estuary and almost drowned. The trees, he said, had told him to do it. In Afghanistan, Patrick learned that Henry had been admitted to a hospital mental ward. Ten days later he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. With remarkable candour, Patrick writes of the seven years Henry has since spent almost entirely in mental hospitals. Schizophrenics are at high risk for suicide, and his parents live in constant fear for Henry's life. The book also includes Henry's own account of his experiences. In these raw and eerily beautiful chapters he tells of his visions and voices, the sense that he has discovered something magical and profound. Together, Patrick and Henry's stories create one of the most nuanced and revealing portraits of mental illness ever written, and a stirring memoir of family, parenthood, and courage.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Unfortunately I have a huge knowledge of what carers go through and I really liked the brutal honesty of this book. Controversial and unpopular issues are raised (exactly the same as what I have been thinking).We have swung form a world of institutions to politically correct soundbites of freedom for the vulnerable without supportive structures in place. We still have not found the balance. As well as a deep insight into hospitals, their advantages and disadvantages, the book also raises issues regarding cannabis and its underplayed dangers. Needless to say it is well written and researched from an award winning journalist father and an academic mother but it is their emotions laid bare that will resonate most with the reader. Fewer, but significant, chapters are written by their son Henry and they give hope. There are not enough books like this out there. My only regret is that it deals with the British system and not the Irish one. Personal accounts remain eerily silent over here.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is written with great care and intelligence. By his own admission Patrick Cockburn knew nothing about schizophrenia when his son Henry was given that diagnosis about ten years ago but he seems to have read everything he could find in short order like the experienced journalist he is and among other things this book contains useful summaries of a variety of theories about the nature of the condition and its treatment. Cockburn is also very frank about the effect of Henry's experiences on his wider family. Perhaps the greatest value for me in the book however is his careful and accurate description of the way people diagnosed with schizophrenia are cared for in this country. I write as one who worked as a mental health social worker for ten years. For this reason, among others, I would recommend this book to anyone who for whatever reason wants to know about how mental illness is treated.
Cockburn also spells out the agonies carers go through. He states his opinions about various matters trenchantly and I don't always agree with him, especially on Laing and on care in the community. But his views are well put and worthy of careful consideration.
Several chapters of the book are written by Henry who gives a lucid account of his experiences. Like most people who achieve this diagnosis for many years he did not accept that he was ill. It is my belief that the `delusions' suffered by people diagnosed as schizophrenic are as real to them as other people's experience are to them, and I have also found that respecting this is the basis of any real communication with `mad' people. Henry is a talented artist and the way he talks about his communication with trees and other living things evokes a magical but difficult world.
Cockburn also spells out the agonies carers go through. He states his opinions about various matters trenchantly and I don't always agree with him, especially on Laing and on care in the community. But his views are well put and worthy of careful consideration.
Several chapters of the book are written by Henry who gives a lucid account of his experiences. Like most people who achieve this diagnosis for many years he did not accept that he was ill. It is my belief that the `delusions' suffered by people diagnosed as schizophrenic are as real to them as other people's experience are to them, and I have also found that respecting this is the basis of any real communication with `mad' people. Henry is a talented artist and the way he talks about his communication with trees and other living things evokes a magical but difficult world.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
When Patrick Cockburn received a telephone call while reporting in Afghanistan to tell him that his son, Henry, had been admitted into a hospital mental ward the Cockburn family began a long and arduous battle with schizophrenia.
Told by both Patrick and Henry this is the tale of Henry's road to (near) recovery. There are any number of books on the market about dealing with mental illness, but what stands this book out is it is told from both the patient and the family's point of view.
Henry's chapters are told with such honesty and candour that you can't help but to live the hallucinations with him Indeed told in this way it is understandable how he believed in them so wholeheartedly.
The chapters written by Patrick are as you would expect journalistic and informative, but the pain which Henry's illness caused the Cockburn family is clear to see.
It's heartbreaking to read the impact on Patrick and his wife as Henry goes missing for days on end and then the next chapter read what was going on in Henry's head as he tried to commune with nature and obeyed the voices in his head.
This isn't a misery memoir, and even though the health system failed the family in many way, this is not an indictment of the NHS. It is a moving and revealing look at schizophrenia, told in a refreshingly original way. For anyone who is touched by mental illness, and it is as many as one in four of us, should read this and take hope from it.
Told by both Patrick and Henry this is the tale of Henry's road to (near) recovery. There are any number of books on the market about dealing with mental illness, but what stands this book out is it is told from both the patient and the family's point of view.
Henry's chapters are told with such honesty and candour that you can't help but to live the hallucinations with him Indeed told in this way it is understandable how he believed in them so wholeheartedly.
The chapters written by Patrick are as you would expect journalistic and informative, but the pain which Henry's illness caused the Cockburn family is clear to see.
It's heartbreaking to read the impact on Patrick and his wife as Henry goes missing for days on end and then the next chapter read what was going on in Henry's head as he tried to commune with nature and obeyed the voices in his head.
This isn't a misery memoir, and even though the health system failed the family in many way, this is not an indictment of the NHS. It is a moving and revealing look at schizophrenia, told in a refreshingly original way. For anyone who is touched by mental illness, and it is as many as one in four of us, should read this and take hope from it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
henry's demons
Excellent tale of one family's struggle to cope with schizophrenia,this hopefully raises awareness and acceptance of a fairly common serious illness which is hidden from society... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kathleen Catherall
Henry's Demons
Very well writen.I found it very helpful as I am going through some of the same things with my daughter and I was feeling quite alone until I read this book. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brenda
But who is on Henry's side?
Rossa Forbes is a contributor to Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change
This book has two great strengths. Read more
This book has two great strengths. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Rossa Forbes
tragic and tragically wrong
There are two great tragedies in this book. The first is Henry Cockburn's schizophrenia. The second is Patrick Cockburn's mistaken belief that cannabis caused his son's... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Angus
x
I found it very interesting to have an insight into the world of someone who sees things completely differently from the majority of the society and how his parents try to cope... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Macska
Antipsychotics
I felt that the book did not go into enough detail about the serious side-effects of antipsychotics. I would recommend the book however. I read the book in two days. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Louise A Smith
Read with some caution...
As a book in and of itself it is a fascinating and moving read and deserves to be popular.
However if you are reading the book to learn more about mental illness then I... Read more
However if you are reading the book to learn more about mental illness then I... Read more
Published 12 months ago by M. R. Montgomery
Thoughtful and insightful account of living with schizophrenia
This is an excellent book on a tragic subject. It's very readable and not too long. On the one hand you read the parents' perspective. Read more
Published 13 months ago by P. Strafford
Wonderful!
This book appealed to me as I've recently been working closely with a schizophrenic client, and have been doing some background reading around the illness. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Miss J S Gale
courageous and helpful account of impact of schizophrenia
Patrick Cockburn is a much respected and admired journalist, with deep knowledge of the Middle East, but in this book written with his son Henry he turns his gaze closer to home... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Susie
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