Horatio Clare tells a story of mania, psychosis and treatment in a psychiatric hospital, and onwards to release, recovery and healing.

After a lifetime of ups and downs, Clare experienced a complete breakdown and was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. He now reflects on how the mind can lose touch with reality, how we can fall apart and how we can be healed – or not – by treatment.

Clare talks about those who looked after him, from family and friends to strangers and professionals and how we understand and treat acute crises of mental health. At a time where admission rates to mental hospitals are on the rise and ever wider sections of society are facing mental health issues, he gives a powerful and compassionate account of his own journey to ask urgent questions about mental health that affect each and every one of us.

He is in conversation with writer and journalist Dan Richards.

Horatio Clare’s Heavy Light is published by Vintage Publishing. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

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Festival of Ideas: Horatio Clare, What Happens When the Mind Loses Touch with Reality?