Piecing it together
My brother Simon worked on his novel The Identity Parade for over 10 years. The pages came to light after he died, stored in a mix of box files and A4 folders in no discernable order. Many were found leaved between sheets of newspaper on shelves in his store cupboard; others were hidden between record sleeves, or abandoned among piles of books. Gathered up, they remained in storage boxes for many months. Eventually, I began sorting them out and piecing the novel together using Simon’s diaries and explanatory notes as a guide.
Simon had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and spent many hours creating these pages. The act of creating them was of itself therapeutic, central to his own process of reconciliation with mental illness.
Sorting the pages has been a slow, painstaking and time-consuming process – rather like doing a giant jig-saw puzzle. The result is a sequence that I believe is true to Simon’s original intentions. My hope is it will be informative for those wanting greater understanding and insight into the mind of someone who experiences bipolar mood swings as well as being of interest to the more casual viewer. Those in need of more information on bipolar should visit the web site of Bipolar UK.
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-John Miles