First thoughts

The Locked Ward: The Memoir Of A Psychiatric Orderly

WHEN asked to leave his job caring for elderly dementia sufferers to work in a hospital psychiatric unit, Scottish nurse Dennis O’Donnell was unsure because he “wasn’t a fighter”.

Reassured that the patients needed people who could listen, he moved to Ward 25 — the Locked Ward — and spent seven years looking after people with all sorts of mental illnesses.

This memoir covers his frustrations, friendships and frivolity while working in a place populated with violent, scared, confused and unpredictable characters, both staff and clients.

It is darkly funny, frequently foul-mouthed, sometimes disturbing and overwhelmingly poignant, but O’Donnell does not indulge in patronisation. Nobody is dismissed as a “loony”.

Although there is an understated plea for more state support, The Locked Ward is a demand for understanding, not sympathy. And it is a powerful one.

The Child Who

Simon Lelic

Mantle;

£12.99

Review: Dave Mark

Simon Lelic doesn’t shy away from controversial issues. He runs towards them, arms outstretched, like a child towards sweeties.

And the results of his examination of the bigger sociological questions always make for great literature.

He’s billed as a crime writer, but his books are bigger than that. And in his work he finds his stride as somebody who can truly make us examine ourselves, and place ourselves in the scenarios he creates so masterfully.

A pre-teen is arrested for a brutal murder that shocks a small town. A bored solicitor agrees to represent him. And the decision has major repercussions for his family.

The solicitor, Leo, is as flawed as the rest of us. When his family start paying the price, he’s conflicted over whether he refuses to drop the case through principle or bloody-mindedness.

The action, when it comes, zips along at a fair old lick, but it is the thought processes of the protagonists that engage, along with the oppressive atmosphere Lelic has got down to a fine art. Terrific stuff.

Pear Shaped Stella Newman

Avon;

£6.99

Review: Laura Temple

The perfect antidote to those depressing dark nights when going to the gym is the last thing on your mind, journalist, blogger and amateur cook Stella Newman’s debut novel, Pear Shaped, provides a worthy guilt-free alternative.

Painfully honest at times, this is Sex And The City for realists. Sophie is 33, a successful career woman who loves her job developing desserts for a supermarket chain. Then she meets wealthy businessman James, 45, who shares her passion for food and loves everything about her... or so it seems. A tale of deal-breakers and heartbreakers, the highlight has to be the indulgent descriptions of cookies, custard donuts and old-fashioned cocktails.

While you might not be besotted by the boyfriend, you’ll certainly be enchanted by the places in London and New York that Sophie’s character (and Newman) has come to know and love.

Bereft

Chris Womersley

Quercus;

£10.99

Review: Sandra Mangan

Australian author Chris Womersley has already garnered literary plaudits — in fact, this book was named Book of the Year in the 2011 ABIA Awards.

Now out in paperback, Bereft is a heavyweight piece of work. It is set in 1919, and as the Spanish Flu epidemic rages across Australia Quinn Walker returns from the Great War.

He is heading for Flint, the tiny town he fled 10 years earlier after he was accused of murder. But Quinn is an innocent man, haunted by memories of his beloved sister — and the man he saw kill her.

With the help of Sadie, a young urchin girl who befriends him, Quinn must battle his past demons before he can find peace.

This is a haunting, perturbing novel which grabs the reader and doesn’t let go after the last page has been turned. Recommended.