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The Devil Within
  • Published: 15 May 2009
  • ISBN: 9780091917463
  • Imprint: Vermilion
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

The Devil Within

A Memoir of Depression

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A highly-acclaimed memoir of depression

'I was nearly twenty before I understood that there was a name for what sometimes happened to me. Later, I learned that it has gone by many names - the black dog, the bell jar, the noonday demon, darkness visible, malignant sadness - but in my teens I'd just assumed that my fierce highs and days of disproportionate, isolating despair were part of every teenager's repertoire - how else would Morrissey have sold so many records? These pitches in mood were something I didn't speak about to anyone, because I was afraid of two things - either that it was nothing serious, and I would be told to pull myself together, or that it was serious, and I would be told that, yes, I was a mental case.'

Stephanie Merritt has a career as a novelist and journalist, a beautiful son and a supportive family. Why then did she want to kill herself at the age of 29? Why could no one, neither the system of GPs and health professionals, nor her closest family and friends help her?

Reading like a hybrid of Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation and Rachel Cusk's more sober A Life's Work, Stephanie's unflinchingly honest memoir explores areas of experience commonly associated with depression such as love, solitude and self-medication through the prism of her own experience.

Beautifully written and intensely honest this is an extraordinarily moving, life-affirming book about a debilitating illness that affects one in six people in the UK alone.
  • Published: 15 May 2009
  • ISBN: 9780091917463
  • Imprint: Vermilion
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99
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About the author

Stephanie Merritt

Stephanie Merritt was born in 1974.She is the author of two novels, Gaveston, which won a Betty Trask Award in 2002 and Real, for which she was also commissioned to write the screenplay.As a journalist she has contributed to a wide range of newspapers and magazines as well as radio and television and she now writes principally for The Observer.

SM

Praise for The Devil Within

This powerful memoir will speak to anyone who has suffered bipolar disorder or depression

Observer

A balanced and brave view of a struggle for sanity...Merritt is an elegant, stoical and informative observer of her own predicament, with an admirable line in grim comedy

Evening Standard

Merritt's attempts at self analysis are bravely honest and provocative...This is a brave and eloquent book

Telegraph

Exceedingly well-researched, Merritt comes across as a brave woman who has beaten her devil

Financial Times

A moving and powerful account of possibly the most hideous emotional problem - bipolar disorder

Oliver James

With a skilled touch, Merritt subtly unravels depression's 'knot of contradictions', blending informative research with an insightful personal account ... [she] has found an eloquent voice with which to shed light onto dark matters

Independent on Sunday

[A] darkly humorous account of the unruly humours governing human brings ... The writer here has found an eloquent voice with which to shed light onto dark matters

Independent on Sunday
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