The Episode
DESCENDING INTO MANIA… WHO KNOWS WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS IMAGINED?
When a naïve Felix Merryweather finds himself unexpectedly reunited with a woman from his past, he can’t imagine the bizarre chain of events that will follow, as he is drawn into the labyrinthine world of the reclusive entrepreneur, Lord Lindisfarne.
It is a world born out of Lindisfarne’s, then just plain Victor Turnbull’s, descent into mania following a freak accident. The Episode explores the boundaries between the real and the imagined; between the known and the unknown; between the possible and the improbable.
It gives a rare first person insight into how it feels when an individual finds the intellectual certainties that define our daily lives crumbling all around him.
A staggering 38 per cent of people in Europe are estimated to suffer some degree of mental illness or breakdown at some point in their lives. Adam Ant, Russell Brand, Alastair Campbell, Ray Davies, Stephen Fry, Paul Gascoigne, Bill Oddie and Catherine Zeta-Jones are just a few of those who have “come out” as sufferers of bipolar disorder.
That’s why The Episode is very much a novel of the Zeitgeist, telling as it does the intimate story of what the medical people call a manic episode. Statistics tell us that such episodes are likely to be repeated, leading to the classic symptoms of bipolar disorder, with its extremes of euphoria and depression.
The Episode explores the boundaries between the real and the imagined; between the known and the unknown; between the possible and the improbable. It gives a rare first person insight into how it feels when an individual finds the intellectual certainties that define our daily lives crumbling all around him.
Reader reviews
“To Read This Is To Experience Mania: Gripped from the first paragraph, I can barely put it down. Clever, suspenseful, laugh out loud funny, a cracker of a read.”
“A Thriller With Depth – A compelling read that I didn’t want to end, although was dying to know what would happen. I thought it was a very original take on the topic of mental health and all the more interesting for having its roots in reality.”
“You Won’t Want To Put It Down – There’s so much in it that makes you think deep and it’s the finer details that are so thought provoking. There’s plenty of things that are funny and those you can relate to as well. A must read.”
Future fiction
Stan is currently working on a second novel, which explores an alternative political and social landscape in a dystopian fragmented UK, in which separate nation states find themselves in a fractious relationship with the rump state of Little Britain. Watch out for further news.
