#catharine arnold

18 – BEDLAM; LONDON AND ITS MAD by Catharine Arnold

Much better than the Amazons book by Lyn Webster Wild last time; this one’s written by someone who knows their subject, is in the same field, and catches the mix of accurate detail and cheerful readability. A history of London’s Bethlem Hospital from its founding to its influence on every haunted asylum movie ever made, this is engaging and takes in the history of healthcare, mental healthcare, London, popular press, and even amusing diversions into witchcraft laws and jocular anecdotes.

Very readable, knowledgable, written by a historian who is also a psychologist and engaging writer… Yeah, this should be a TV series as well. Get to it, BBC Two. Since I’ve been alternating male and female  writers but had had to give up on the Amazons one I wasn’t sure whether to go for another female-written nonfiction book or just switch over to something else written by a bloke, but choosing this one definitely made up for the previous one.

On a more general note, I notice my rate of reading has slowed now that we’re into winter, as it’s no longer the weather to catch some rays on the verandah with a book… I do love to read in bed, but then Lesley’s like ‘my eyes need the light off’ when I’ve gone about half a paragraph, even though I found two of her sleep masks, so I don’t really get to do that unless I want to go to bed about 9pm. Which I don’t.