From which tome did Rachel Kelly think every line was worth noting for future reference?
... are you reading now?
I AM rereading Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. Unlike Blakemore, I'm no neuroscientist but I became interested in adolescent mental health about five years ago.
As a writer in the mental health field and an ambassador for charities including SANE and Rethink Mental Illness, I was getting more and more messages from parents struggling with troubled teenagers. What did I recommend? Did I know a good therapist?
I wanted to figure out ways we could support young people's psychological health. Blakemore's book prompted a lot of 'Ah ha!' moments – 'So that's what's going on in the teenage brain!' Right now I need a refresher on up-to-the-minute brain science: it is fascinating but also complex and Blakemore delivers.
... would you take to a desert island?
IT would have to be Middlemarch by George Eliot – a classic for a reason: it's so good. I enjoy underlining bits of books that resonate and squirrelling them away in my commonplace book to savour later. Usually, I might note down four or five good lines. But I had to abandon the practice with Middlemarch as I was almost copying out the whole thing.
I love Eliot's wise and compassionate view of the world. She combines a cracking plot stuffed with unforgettable characters with an ability to weave in observations on what makes us human.
... first gave you the reading bug?
I remember a boring summer holiday on the coast of Wexford in Ireland aged about 11 or so and discovering Agatha Christie.
I couldn't stop reading The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd to find out who'd done it. Detective stories help me stay present and alleviate my anxiety by diverting my thoughts from the past or future.
... left you cold?
I struggled with Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Yes, there is indeed an epidemic of teenage anguish, for which Haidt squarely blames smartphones. But my experience over the past five years is that adolescent mental health problems are complicated and resistant to any single explanation.
They also need multiple, imaginative and fresh solutions, and those Haidt offers are somewhat limited in that regard.
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