Forrest’s memoir has as much warmth and humour as it does misery. It seemed like a generous gesture from someone who is supposedly her own sole obsession.įor all that this book has melancholy themes, it is not a depressing read. These don’t always work in the context of the narrative that has proceeded them, but they are all touching and positive glimpses into the life of the good doctor. Then there are the passages at the end of each chapter which are given over to tributes to Dr R by those who knew him or whose loved ones were saved by him.

He’s very impressive, she seems to be saying, so I must be impressive too, right? Or else he wouldn’t want me. It’s paints a picture of a woman who measures her self-worth through the eyes of other people, and particularly her partner. He didn’t want to meet my parents.’ She goes on to describe being disappointed that Dr R is concerned, rather than impressed, when she begins ‘seeing a writer who is almost as famous for his tumultuous private life as he is for his award-winning work.’ Having said of Bad Boyfriend she has, ‘no idea why he was ever with me. However, the second time through these passages seemed to jar in a different way. On the first reading of the book Forrest’s tendency to name drop without naming names – she describes meeting on an aeroplane ‘the greatest playwright of our generation’, whose ‘talent looms over anyone our age who wants to be a writer’ – did seem self-congratulatory. But Forrest’s self obsession is more of the kind that seems impossible to avoid when you’re fighting a battle for your life inside your own head, than that borne of shallow vanity. I’ve seen this book described as self obsessed. It is also about her family, her illness and her grief she experiences over the ending of her relationship with a man she describes as her Gypsy Husband the love of her life. She describes how he teaches her to heal herself, and the loss she feels when he dies suddenly of a cancer none of his patients ever knew he had.

The book is ostensibly about the author’s relationship with her psychiatrist.

Forrest’s narrative of the struggle of her ‘better angels’ against the turmoil and self destructiveness of her mania and depression felt very honest and recognisable. I eventually bought it while searching out writing about madness, trying to find something I could relate to. This took me a little by surprise given the reviews I’d read when it first came out last year, which luke-warm at best. Your Voice in My Head was the first book by Emma Forrest that I’d read but I enjoyed the way she writes and finished it in one sitting. Title: Your Voice In My Head ( Autobiography)

Your voice in my head book