Henry Cockburn was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 20, shortly after he nearly drowned trying to swim across an estuary because ‘the trees had told him to do it’. Henry and his father Patrick, an award-winning journalist, have written an extraordinary account of Henry’s illness and of Patrick’s journey towards understanding the changes it has brought. Patrick writes about schizophrenia’s history and reveals how little we still know about the illness. The book also includes Henry’s own account of his experiences, written from hospital. Together, they provide both a revealing portrait of mental illness and a moving story of a family’s battle to come to terms with it.

Patrick Cockburn has been a Middle East correspondent – for the Financial Times and, currently, for the Independent – since 1979.  He has written four books on the recent history of Iraq and has won the Martha Gellhorn prize, the James Cameron prize and the Orwell Prize for journalism.