A powerful and deeply personal exploration of mental health, and an indelible account of the legacy of familial illness and living with a fracturing mind.

In August 2014, Tom Lee and his parents drove out to visit Severalls Hospital, a former in-patient psychiatric hospital. Closed since the 1990s, as part of a nationwide shuttering of psychiatric institutions, the buildings now stand derelict and overgrown. But in the recent past, the name 'Severalls' resounded with dread and fear, entering local lexicon as a place where the strange, deranged and dangerous were 'kept away'. Among those strange, deranged and dangerous people were Tom's own parents. The Bullet is a memoir of their time in Severalls, and the breakdowns and difficulties that led them there - often against their will. It is also Tom's own story of his struggle with his fragmenting mental health - a hereditary bullet he believed he'd dodged - and the extraordinary physical crises that precipitated them. Deeply moving, clear-sighted and enormously poignant, The Bullet is a window onto the treatment of mental health disorders in the UK, and a searing analysis of living with a fracturing mind.

"The Bullet offers a deeply moving personal account of what it is like to live with mental illness, the terror and mystery of why and how we break - and it also grapples with the politics of mental health care" - New Statesman

"[A] fragile and unforgettable memoir" - Spectator

"A gripping tale of one man's battle against inherited demons" - Tablet