The Lawn Hospital inspires new novel

When the University of Nottingham’s School of Nursing encompassed training in Lincoln, I had the pleasure of frequently travelling there to teach or visit placements. During that period, I also visited The Lawn Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, previously Lincoln Lunatic Asylum. It was there in the early nineteenth century that Robert Gardiner Hill, supported by Edward Parker Charlesworth set out to reduce unnecessary dependence on coercion and restraint of patients along the lines of the York Retreat. This was far from easy and their efforts were undermined. This humane, reforming zeal and struggle to bring about change mental health care features in the figure of Doctor Bent in my latest novel, 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.

Drawing on nearly forty years working in mental health, much of the action takes place in a Rampton-like high security hospital, and this imaginary world draws on former asylums and mental health facilities like Lawn Hospital.

While the imaginary Nottinghamshire-Lincolnshire I create bears some resemblance to real physical environments in the region, all events and characters are purely hallucinatory inventions.

Working 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 bodies and minds through my work at the Institute of Mental Health.

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. 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

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 Lincolnshire, 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.

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