REACHING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

As read on BBC Radio 4, here is Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller, medical writing at its best on extraordinary journeys into the human brain. What is it like to heal the body when the mind is under attack? Here a leading neurologist reveals some of the astonishing ways in which the damaged brain can radically alter our lives. Absurdities abound in these stories where a sportsman starts spouting gibberish, an undergraduate suddenly becomes psychotic, a mother who has to decide whether a life locked inside her own head is worth living. How does one begin to treat such cases? Dr Ropper charts his 40 year career using dozens of case histories. Meet My Man Godfrey who has a poor sort of memory that only works backwards, a politically incorrect guide to malingering, shamming and hysteria, facing down Lou Gehrig's disease, what it takes to survive a motor-neuron death sentence or to be on the front lines in the battle against Dr Parkinson's disease. Based on true stories. 263pp in paperback.