The Heartland: finding and losing schizophrenia

BRILLIANT. I don't understand how a book on this subject can be so enjoyable, but it is. I love it.' PHILIPPA PERRY

'Absolutely blew me away... I cannot think of another book in the field that would come close to this. In my opinion it is an essential read for those in the mental health arena and anyone whose relative has been touched with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.' JO BRAND

'Erudite, well-researched, and full of compassion... This book will change the way people understand schizophrenia, and that change is long overdue.' CHRISTIE WATSON, author of The Language of Kindness

'A truly important book. ' MAX PORTER, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny

'I have never read a more powerful book about mental health. it has the ability to change the way people think about mental illness.' JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep


Schizophrenia: whether it's the associations it conjures or the people it brings to mind, it is a word we all have a view on. How we perceive it - and how we treat people living with it - is at the core of how we understand mental health.

But what do we really know? How much time do we spend listening? Do we truly comprehend this complex and often contradictory diagnosis?

In The Heartland Nathan Filer, mental health nurse and award winning writer, takes us on a journey into the psychiatric wards he once worked on. He also invites us to spend time with world-leading experts, and with some extraordinary people who share their own stories - true stories - about living with this strange and misunderstood condition.

The Heartland debunks myths, challenges assumptions and offers fresh insight into what it means to be mad.

And what it means to be human.