I couldn't get on with this book at all - the style of writing was too stylised. I have heard the author on the radio and she doesn't speak like that at all! I gave up on this book about 1/3 of the way through, in exasperation.
Excellent book-brings tears of joy and sadness (Rating 5 of 5)
» Someone
I watched the film on Channel 4 and thought it was brilliant.
The book takes a while to get into; the language used (dribblers, etc) can be quite confusing. However, I think anyone with experience of being in the wonderful (very ironic) mental health service in the UK could understand a lot by reading this book. Poppy Shakespeare has many lessons to teach both those who are mental health care proffesionals and patients / carers. The use of humour within Poppy Shakespeare is brilliant; it`s a reality that at our most vulerable, a laugh can be found. The book is incredibly sad, funny and most of all human. Whether mentally ill or not, we all have hopes dreams and aspirations.
Great book, would highly reccommend it.
Possibly a 'Marmite' book........I LOVED it!! (Rating 5 of 5)
» An Avid Reader
Floors 2 to 7 of the Abaddon mental health care facility house 'flops' in ascending order of madness; on the first floor , the Dorothy Fish caters for the day care 'dribblers'. The ambition of every flop is to move down to the floor below - & ultimately to the first floor Dorothy Fish. But the dribblers live in fear of being discharged & prepare for their asessments carefully. They need to appear mad enough to avoid being discharged but not so mad as to be sectioned on to one of the wards above.
And then Poppy Shakespeare arrives..........
Unlike the other day care dribblers, who attend on a voluntary basis, Poppy has been told if she doesn't attend every day she will be sectioned to one of the wards and her daughter taken into care. She looks & sounds perfectly sane - and is adamant that she is - so why is she there??
I found this one of the funniest, saddest, scariest books I have ever read. It's NOT for the politically correct, or those who are offended by bad language -but they'll be missing a treasure.
Style is really important to me - I generally read only literary novels - yet this is one of my all-time favourite books. The barely articulate musings of long-term dribbler N become,in Clare Allan's hands, an eloquent vehicle for the biting satire that is 'Poppy Shakespeare'. It's an incredibly moving book & brilliantly satirises the attitude of 'sniffs' to mental illness; the vagaries of the benefits system; care in the community and target-led healthcare.
A really special book that I devoured in a single sitting but is still with me, it contains lots of truths within the satirical hyperbole.
You don't have to be mad here ... but it helps! (Rating 4 of 5)
» Annabel Gaskell
Does institutionalisation make you mad? Can anyone be really cured after years in a care facility? How many are working the system to stay rather than face the outside world? Are people getting enough of the right treatment? These are just some of the issues surrounding mental health that Allan addresses in her first novel having seen life from the inside herself apparently.
Written from the viewpoint of one of the saner day patients 'N' who, at the start of the novel, has learnt to work the system, but still couldn't survive totally outside it. When a new patient Poppy arrives, who doesn't seem very mad, N is assigned to be her guide, and gradually everything changes ...
Billed as a North London 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest', that's doing this book a disservice; it's very different. There are digs at the politicians too, especially over the provision of 'Mad Money' - an issue that tends to overtake the human plot at times.
An uneasy read - you wonder if there was much poetic licence taken; or is this a true reflection on life in such an institution ...
Funny and moving (Rating 4 of 5)
» P. G. Harris
N is a day patient in a London Psychiatric hospital. The day patients are all desperately trying to avoid being assessed as sane and discharged, the in-patients are desperate to become day patients.
Enter Poppy Shakespeare, who believes she is sane and shouldn't be in the hospital. In order to be released she needs legal help, which she can only get if she is sufficiently insane to qualify for benefits .....
I haven't a clue whether this is an accurate portrayal of mental illness, but it certainly rings true. The characters are believable and in a strange way endearing, and the voice of N feels authentic.
There are genuinely laugh out loud moments and the story also has definite pathos and sadness.
On top of the story of N and Poppy the book is a slightly clumsy satire on New Labour, or if not New Labour, contemporary management/goal driven/assessment fuelled politics. Clumsy ? Giving the authority figure the name "Tony Balaclava" ?
Poppy Shakespeare is far from perfect, for example in common with many books it starts too slowly but then seems in a rush to finish.
However, it is a fine debut novel and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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