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On The Table Read, “the best book magazine in the UK“, from Magic to Mania by Arthur Hutt is a hard to put-down biography about the reality of living with a mental illness.
Arthur Hutt’s Biography
From Magic To Mania by Arthur Hutt is an unexpectedly buoyant biography. He shares the experiences of going from living a man living a very successful life, until he was diagonised as bipolar at age 30.
Arthur recounts some of the ‘magic’ moments from his life, including his early years and running a thriving recruitment business. He contrasts these with the ‘mania’ he experienced post bipolar.
From Magic To Mania is neither a self-help book, nor a medical overview of the bipolar condition. The authors efforts have resulted in an immersive and fascinating opening of a window into life living with a major mental illness…
Whilst appreciating that everyone’s mental illness experiences are different, From Magic to Mania offers a positive take on the Hutt’s life throughout. This must read biography is one of the most uplifting and refreshing biographies published in the last year.
From Magic To Mania
A five year old boy arrives on a new housing estate in 1960. He had been living with his parents and brother in a transit camp. His home was a corrugated tin shed, quite like those they keep pigs in today. This new estate was built by the local council to house the many people who had nowhere decent to live. The difference in his life was huge. The house his Father had chosen had large gardens to the rear, sides and front. The boy was more than happy with the house.
The estate had been built on the edge of an ancient village with an incredible history. The boy’s life at home was difficult. His Mother had paranoid schizophrenia and he was sometimes scared at her behaviour. He spent a lot of time away from home, exploring the area in and around the older end of the village. He found out that there was a world famous author buried in the local churchyard for no apparent reason. He also found out that the nation’s leaders had met in the village and decided to take us into the Great War against Germany. He had no idea why and still wonders.
Over the years the boy became a man. He had built up a successful business by the age of thirty. Things were going really well until one very ordinary day, whilst he was making a sales pitch, he suffered a huge panic attack which much later was identified as the beginning of his bipolar journey. Not a journey he really wanted to take. He didn’t like the cost of the ticket either. This is not a self-help book. It is about that journey, how it felt, what it meant to him.
Arthur Hutt
“The nation’s mental health has been a hot topic for some time now. I think the move towards a more open approach and greater understanding of mental health issues was started by the Princes William and Harry talking about their feelings around their mother’s life and death.
“Whether that is true or not, we are in a much better place now that people feel able to talk about depression, anxiety and other subjects previously taboo.
“There is a difference between mental health and mental illness, however.Mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia and to a lesser extent Bipolar Affective Disorder are not so openly discussed.
Sharing The Impact Of Mental Illness
“My book is about how mental illness has affected my life. What it was like growing up with a mum who was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.
“What it was like to have Bipolar enter my life when I was 30 years old and doing quite well for myself. How this illness then changed the course of my life.
I have tried to give an explicit and honest account. I offer no medical descriptions or coping mechanisms. I just try to describe how it actually feels to have this illness and how it has affected me specifically. It is almost certainly different for others with the same illness.
“I have written the book with plenty of humour because my life has contained that throughout. I am an optimist.Several people with mental health issues have said they can relate to my story and have found it helpful in coping with their own particular problems.One said she felt better seeing there was someone worse off than herself!
“Most say that they really enjoyed the book which amuses me as it largely describes how my life fell apart following Bipolar’s entry into it.”
A Life With Bipolar
“I am now 67 years of age. I am amazed I have made it this far. One of the main symptoms of bipolar is a tendency to put yourself in dangerous situations. I’ve done plenty of that and feel lucky to have lived to tell the tale! That is not a joke.
“In my Magic phase I made a good living in the recruitment industry. The book details how I set up a successful head hunting business in Maidenhead and was earning more money than I knew what to do with.
“At 30 bipolar struck and as I was the business, it inevitably failed. It is quite a long story, but having been around the world a bit I ended up in Wales. Using my skills in a different way, I re-trained to become a careers adviser. That is what I have been doing for the past 27 years. I am still working because I enjoy it. I write because I love it. The book ends with me saying that I finally feel safe. I do. I still have bipolar but have got it under control. I hope.”
Find From Magic To Mania now:
Independently published, From Magic to Mania is available on Amazon as follows:
Hardcover (£14.99) – https://amzn.to/3A6zADF
Paperback (£9.99) – https://amzn.to/3SQKxSF
Kindle format (£3.99 or free via Kindle unlimited) – https://amzn.to/3w6OwRh
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