This is an intriguing, sometimes scary tale set in the 1950s English mental health field. Having lived through an era when harsh, stigmatising Victorian mental health legislation still applied, the author draws on his experience and research to convey the flavour of these times.
The story follows young teacher John Chisholm who begins to experience a nervous breakdown. He is forcibly removed to Springwell, a harsh mental institution where he endures and witnesses abuse – some in the name of treatment – and makes new, eccentric friends. John’s wife Heather Chisholm, who has recently battled post-natal depression, is distraught. Left with their infant child, she struggles to rally support from friends and family. Encountering John’s hostility on visiting him, and horrified at the conditions in which he is hopelessly trapped, she finds herself vulnerable to Sam Newman, an overworked Mental Health Officer instrumental in John’s detention.
Can Heather resist not only Sam, but also Sarge Parker, the sadistic and ambitious Charge Nurse who targets John for abuse? Will John ever escape the harsh environment in which he’s imprisoned? Will his relationship with Heather survive? And can Jamie Macdonald, the new Medical Superintendent, transform Springwell into a caring community?
With flashes of dark humour, Mad Worlds invites you to eavesdrop on realistic scenarios, both within and outside a mental asylum of the 1950s. The tale raises issues of everlasting importance in mental health, relationships and loss.

Born in St Andrews, Scotland, Bill Douglas was in his teens inspired by talks with a depressed aunt, to work in mental health. During the 1960s he worked in psychiatric social work in hospital and community settings. As a polytechnic lecturer he did some mental health teaching. On retiring he trained as a counsellor, to work in a bereavement centre and an NHS locality counselling service. He resides in the Liverpool area, volunteers for Samaritans and a local church, draws support for writing from his wife Elisabeth and Formby Writers, and thirsts to write more historical fiction.