About the book
Throughout her childhood, Tess Redgrave knew she had a ‘mad’ grandmother who made repeated visits to a mental asylum. But it wasn’t until her thirties, years after her Nanie had died and in the depths of her own crippling depression, that Tess was prompted to find out more.
What she unearthed was an explosive family story of madness and secrecy that stretched back to nineteenth-century New Zealand and to a man referred to by the courts as ‘an unfortunate lunatic’. While the discovery shocked Tess, it also helped her face the truth not only about her grandmother but about herself.
The Unfortunate Lunatic is a compulsive read that says as much about the history of mental health care in this country as it does about one family and what they have suffered. It also talks to the power of stories to uncover the truth and to heal.
‘Honest, personal and deeply affecting, The Unfortunate Lunatic is a compassionate investigation into an illness that touches many Kiwi families.’ Cristina Sanders
‘It’s enough to make you weep, quite a few times. The author’s honest testimony about her own mental health shifts the reader’s gaze so the grandmother and great-grandfather “lunatics” are not seen as “other”—they are in me and in us.’ Lucy O’Hagan
