This book seemed to arrive for me just at the right time, as you know I’m currently taking part in the Mental Illness Advocacy reading challenge.
So I get the chance to advocate not just mental illness but also new writing. I must now thank Lucie Barât and the other lovely folks of Little Episodes Publishing for the review copy they sent me. All the King’s Horses is the third volume of the An Expression of Depression series which was published a little earlier this year, the previous instalments were Back in 5 Minutes (February 2010) and Brainstorms (October 2010). For information about Little Episodes’ publications, performances, and cafe why not check out there website here.
” All the King’s Horses
The ‘Expression of Depression’ anthologies arose from a journal and pad of art therapy drawings recorded during a sting in rehab. The idea was to collate similar pieces from as many writers as possible: The desire was to provide empathy and inspiration to anyone going through a similar experience of isolation and mental struggle. ‘All the King’s Horses’ is the third volume in a series of six and contains work contributed by Nina Antonia, Sadie Frost and Fran Lock.
Little Episodes
Little Episodes is an independent publisher and arts production company run by artists to promote emerging as well as established talent. The ‘Expression of Depression’ anthology series hopes to de-stigmatise and raise awareness of addiction and depression through art.”
I found this to be a truly refreshing read, and something I haven’t really tried before. There was an interesting mixture of short poems and slightly longer tales. Some of my favourites were the ones with the repetition that I found in them, and not just the rhyme repeated often phrases were repeated. I find with my OCD that repetition is something really important and it comforting to see that it is common to other mental health problems. All the different entries all stood out independently but there was an underlying thread of realism. Now I don’t know if the situations and people described in the poems were really, only really the author knows that. But I could tell that the authors had experience of the states of mind they were describing.
If you are someone suffering or simply interested to know more about depression then I highly recommend this collection of poems. I found them both entertaining and inspiration. I would definitely be interested in reading the previous volumes in the future.
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What an exciting find for the challenge!! I’m so glad the publisher contacted you, Jessica.
And me, all I can presume is that they saw I was taking part in the challenge and that is why they contacted. Either that or very good luck! Which ever way it was the perfect read for this challenge.