Local 'Mad Poet' John Clare inspires new novel

Writers, like so called local ‘Mad Poet’, John Clare, incarcerated at St.Andrew’s asylum at Northampton, can suffer mentally but also benefit in their craft from the insights and empathy such challenges bring. Born in 1793, in Helpstone, Clare likely struggled with a serious mental condition bipolar disorder (sometimes call manic-depressive disorder) exacerbated by alcoholism. Clare was subject to extreme changes in mood, for example, and claimed he was Shakespeare, Byron and prize-fighter, Jack Randall! This was at a time when the fashion for mad-genius was high. It was also when so-called moral or humane treatment of ‘the mad’ in the early nineteenth century replaced the cruelty of the supposedly enlightened eighteenth century. This kind of reform towards a more benign asylum regime lies at the heart of The Wonders of Doctor Bent.

The worlds of Jason Hemp, an English lecturer, and Dr Bent, the unlikely Medical Director of high-security psychiatric hospital Foston Hall, come together in this dark tale of murder, revenge and abandonment. Attempting to track down his twin brother’s killer, Hemp finds his life unravelling in unexpected and frightening ways, whilst visionary Dr Bent attempts to reform Foston Hall into a place of comfort, all while facing his own mental health challenges. Like John Clare, his passion for the countryside and open-spaces drives an acute awareness of the prison-like high-security hospital without a view of this restorative resource. Dr Bent would certainly appreciate Clare’s line: ‘Ah sure it is a lovely day/ As ever summer’s glory yields/ And I will put my books away/ And wander in the fields’ (‘A Morning Walk’).

One of Clare’s most famous poems, ‘I am’, features in The Wonders of Doctor Bent, best illustrating the challenge to identity that comes when locked up against one’s will:

I am – yet what I am, none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:

I am the self-consumer of my woes –

They rise and vanish in oblivion’s host

Like shadows in love-frenzied stifled throes

And yet I am, and live – like vapours tost

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dreams,

Where there is neither sense of life or joys,

But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;

Even the dearest that I love the best

Are strange – nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod

A place where woman never smiled or wept

There to abide with my Creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Untroubling and untroubled where I lie

The grass below – above, the vaulted sky.

Working at the Institute of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham has been a big part of my life, and I have relished becoming the world’s first Professor of Health Humanities, spearheading the application of the arts to promote healthy minds and bodies through my work.

Looking back, my writing life has grown out of complex, intergenerational trauma, not least through adverse experiences in childhood. Such experiences bring loss of trust so profound, so immense, that it has been a battle to survive. My mental afflictions have brought me to writing, creativity and an interest in writers such as John Clare. Indeed, books and writing have been my self-prescribed medication. I am, like many colleagues working in the field of mental health, a wounded healer.

One of the joys of writing fiction alongside academic non-fiction is hearing back from my readers. After all, authors write novels with readers in mind. Here is what some of them have been saying.

“I loved the book! The Wonders of Doctor Bent is an engaging and entertaining novel. Paul Crawford has created two memorable central characters, and draws on his own real-life experience of health humanities and creative practice to draw us into his vividly realised version of life in the contemporary English midlands.”

Professor James Moran, Professor of Modern English and Drama, The University of Nottingham

"A beautifully written and engaging psychological thriller that will keep you thinking long after the final page. Paul Crawford’s The Wonders of Doctor Bent is a gripping exploration of mental health, morality, and the human psyche. With impeccable prose and a thought-provoking plot, this dark literary thriller not only captivates fans of the genre but also offers profound value to those with lived experience of or an interest in mental health, shedding light on the complexities of compassion and accountability."

Dr David Crepaz-Keay, Mental Health Foundation

"A brilliantly written thriller which draws us into the dire consequences of adverse childhood experiences. It poignantly reveals the potential for recovery."

Gene Beresin MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

“A moving tale of loss and love. Jason Hemp breaks down after his perfect brother is murdered and Dr Bent, an imperfect, thrill-seeking, motorcycle-riding healer, fights to transform the humiliating state of the public services. His revolutionary changes are undermined, and he is left wondering what it is all for, and resolves to repair his own dark wounds...”

Kam Bhui CBE, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

“If you like psychological thrillers that are well crafted and intriguing Paul Crawford’s book is a must read. The interplay between characters is superb. To borrow a Crawford line my ‘skin prickled’ with the twists and turns. It excels. It is realistic. It is honest. I can’t wait to see more of Doctor Bent.”

Ronnie Brown, author of Restless Souls, Unquiet Minds and Fragmented Bodies

As if those are not enough, yet another reader, Dave Chawner, author of Weight Expectations, Stand-Up Comedian and Mental Health Campaigner gave the kind of one-liner that you dream about as a writer!

"Brooding, brilliant and beautiful."

To readers past and future in Northamptonshire, I thank you! To those traumatised in childhood and all those struggling with their mental health I wish all good things to come your way, not least access to creative, restorative resources, including nature itself.

The Wonders of Doctor Bent is available at Amazon, WHSmith, Foyles, Waterstones, Foyles, Cranthorpe Millner, and all good bookshops.