To label the teenager Daniel Bartlam “evil”, as the Daily Mirror does this morning, is a gross oversimplification, not least because implicit in this label is the idea that he is somehow not human, something other, an abomination. He is none of these. Rather he is all too human – an isolated, troubled and destructive …
Tag archives: mental illness
Storytails
Nick will be reading an extract from his novel, Love and Mayhem, at Storytails on Sunday 26th June 2011. Storytails is a free event featuring readings of short fictional stories from some professional, and some not-quite-so professional writers. Storytails is held on the last Sunday of every month from 3pm at The Drop, beneath The …
Society Today – Why Are They Begging?
Society Today, Vol. 1, No. 2, November/December 2005 This is the question on our lips when we walk past a man or woman huddled in the doorway of a shop front like some desperate animal, wrapped in a dirty blanket clinging to it for warmth, hiding a face smeared with grime and shame, and clutching …
Roof – The Broken-Hearted
Roof, Shelter’s magazine, September/October 2006 The plight of the homeless first really dawned on me when I was twenty-one and living in America. My friend, Justin, and I were fast running out of money and needed work: we’d prepaid the rent on a short-term let – a poky studio flat just big enough to swing …
A Descent Into Darkness
It was the beginning of 2007 and life ambled along until the darkness struck, creeping up on me like a dense black cloud and then raining down on me, upon which my world was turned upside down for good. I was thirty-four years old, still single, and wondered whether I was destined to be a …
The Limitations of Lying on the Couch
Human Givens, Vol. 9, No. 2, Summer 2002 I want to recount my experience of psychoanalysis in the hope that I can determine exactly how effective and therapeutic it was for me. Did it alleviate my mental distress? Did it make me feel less miserable? Did it make me happier? I do not conduct this …
“Love and Mayhem”, from Chapter 3
The bus he gets on is packed. He scans the bottom deck for an empty seat, then goes upstairs. As he reaches the top, he glances round and spots a vacant aisle seat two from the back. He sits down and almost immediately finds himself drifting into warm reflections about his time with Catherine in …
“Love and Mayhem”, Chapter 34
The last few days, Catherine has felt like she is flying: she is happy all the time. And she feels like this now as she squints her eyes, peering through the branches at the blue above her, flying through the sky, over a lush landscape and towards a big city. And suddenly she is in …
“Love and Mayhem”, a review by Ralph Lewis
“Love and Mayhem is very intense, but quite remarkable in your depiction of the feeling states of Jack and Catherine – and very well written! So just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it!” Ralph Lewis
“Love and Mayhem”, a review by S. Modi
“This is a remarkable first novel written by Nick Taussig. In short, if you want to experience life through an emotional, intellectual and an almost hidden soul, Nick has managed this with pure perfection. ‘When fate’s got it in for you, there’s no limit to what you may have to put up with’ (Georgette Heyer). …