Dimensions
154 x 233 x 25mm
Tim Elliott had an upper middle-class upbringing on Sydney's North Shore in the 1970s. He had a stay-at home mother, a professional father, three siblings, a private school education and endless opportunities to do what he loved - surfing and fishing. Sadly, this wasn't the idyllic childhood it should have been. Tim's father Max suffered from bi-polar, a condition that got steadily worse as Tim grew into his teenage years. A charming, charismatic, well-respected doctor by day, Max Elliott turned into a roaring, raging madman at home. This is the story of growing up with a parent with mental illness. It is about the lengths children will go to protect their families from shame, and themselves and each other from harm. It is a book that will re-start the conversation we need to have on this topic but also, more broadly, cast light on how we deal with less-than-perfect childhoods and how we strive for psychological coherence later in life.
It is a great challenge to write successfully about personal experiences of hardship, particularly when it's of the household and especially when mental illness is involved - the great silent curse of our suburbs. Tim Elliott has not only managed the task of getting a tough story on to the page, he has produced a work of great emotional power and considerable literary merit.
