Episode 4
Documenting the good and bad history of mental health hospitals, Barbara Taylor finds herself in a hostel. Read by Maggie Steed.
The Last Asylum begins with Barbara Taylor's visit to the innocuously named Princess Park Manor in Friern Barnet, North London - a place of luxury flats and careful landscaping. But this is the former site of one of England's most infamous lunatic asylums, the Middlesex County Pauper Lunatic Aslyum at Colney Hatch. At its peak, this asylum housed nearly 3,000 patients - including, in the late 1980s, Barbara Taylor herself.
Writing about The Last Asylum, Booker prize winner and memoirist, Hilary Mantel said, ''We believe our response to mental illness is more enlightened, kinder and effective than that of the Victorians who built the asylums. Can we be sure? Barbara Taylor challenges complacency, exposes shallow thinking, and points out the flaws and dangers of treatment on the cheap. It is a wise, considered and timely book'.
Darian Leader has described it as 'Superb, Riveting, insightful and relentlessly honest'.
Episode 4:
The history of mental health hospitals is fraught with failures and good intentions. When it was decided to close down the old asylums, the care in the community revolution was already well underway. Barbara finds herself in a hostel.
Reader: Maggie Steed
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for ±«Óãtv Radio 4
Last on
Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Reader | Maggie Steed |
| Producer | Jill Waters |
| Abridger | Jill Waters |
| Author | Barbara Taylor |
Broadcasts
Thu 20 Feb 2014 09:45±«Óãtv Radio 4 FM- Fri 21 Feb 2014 00:30±«Óãtv Radio 4
- Thu 31 Jan 2019 14:45±«Óãtv Radio 4 Extra
- Fri 1 Feb 2019 02:45±«Óãtv Radio 4 Extra
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