Books: All in the Mind

Published on Friday 31 October 2008 15:04

ALL IN THE MIND Alastair Campbell Hutchinson, £17.99

HE RAN New Labour's formidable spin machine with the ruthlessness of a latter-day Robespierre, reduced friend and foe alike to tears with his vicious tirades, and is widely regarded as the malevolent spider at the centre of the twisted web of lies and deceit which led Britain into the disastrous war in Iraq.

As such, the fact that Alastair Campbell's debut novel oozes compassion and humanity hits you with the unexpected impact of a cruise missile to the cranium. In his first fictional venture the semi-retired political pitbull removes his muzzle and meekly rolls over, inviting you to pat him on the head and inspect his scarred underbelly.

All In The Mind is an engaging and occasionally touching tale about a disparate group of damaged people in 21st century London. The man who connects them is their psychiatrist, Professor Martin Sturrock, who spends an hour each week trying slowly to coax them away from the edge of their own personal abyss.

Sturrock's patients include David Temple, a 33-year-old who lives at home with his overbearing mother and spends his days battling near unbearable depression while stacking packets of polyester shirts in a clothes warehouse; the horrifically disfigured Emily Parks, who lost half of her face and all of her confidence in a house fire; Arta Mehmet, a Kosovan refugee struggling to recover after being subjected to a brutal gang rape; binge-drinking Cabinet minister Ralph Hall; and philandering barrister Matthew Noble.

As you would expect, Campbell, himself a reformed alcoholic, is on solid ground when he writes about the likeable but booze-soaked MP whose ambition to become Prime Minister is scuttled by his clandestine imbibing.

The toe-curling incident in which Hall falls for a crude tabloid honey-trap and has to answer to his irate wife and an even less sympathetic Prime Minister – "I have decided and it is tough, but sometimes leaders have to do tough things" – has the ring of authenticity that you would expect from a man who has witnessed, and doubtless orchestrated, several spectacular political defenestrations.

Yet while Sturrock's empathy brings solace to his patients, they fail to notice the terrible storm brewing inside his own mind. Campbell has succeeded in producing a most vivid portrait of the darkness of mental illness, yet ultimately All In The Mind is life-affirming rather than depressing.