''Poppy Shakespeare'' is a 2006 British

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

and 2008

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

film about

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

by Clare Allan. It tells the story of day patients at a mental health hospital. The central characters are Poppy Shakespeare, a new patient, and "N", a long-term patient. Poppy arrives at the hospital strongly asserting that she is sane and demanding to be released from the programme. To gain legal aid she must first prove she is sick so that she can get "MAD money", a.k.a. state benefits. She is befriended by N, who helps her

work the system The letter of the law and the spirit of the law are two possible ways to regard rules or laws. To obey the "letter of the law" is to follow the literal reading of the words of the law, whereas following the "spirit of the law" is to follow th ...

History

Author Clare Allan spent 10 years in a mental health institution. The book was adapted by Sarah Williams and Cowboy Films to a 90-minute drama directed by Benjamin Ross and shown on

on 31 March 2008 and starred

Anna Maxwell Martin Anna Maxwell Martin (born Anna Charlotte Martin; 10 May 1977), sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is an English actress who won two British Academy Television Awards, for her portrayals of Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of ''Ble ...

as N and

Naomie Harris Naomie Melanie Harris (born 6 September 1976) is an English actress. She started her career when she was a child, appearing in the television series '' Simon and the Witch'' in 1987. She portrayed Selena in the zombie film '' 28 Days Later'' (2 ...

as Poppy. The book was short-listed for the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspa ...

2006, the

Orange Award for New Writers The Orange Award for New Writers was a prize given by telecommunications company Orange UK between 2006 and 2010. It was launched to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Orange Prize for Fiction. The award was support ...

2007 and the BT

Mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

Book of the year 2007 and long-listed for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007.

Michel Faber Michel Faber (born 13 April 1960) is a Dutch-born writer of English-language fiction, including his 2002 novel ''The Crimson Petal and the White'', and '' Under the Skin'' (2000) which was adapted for film by Jonathan Glazer, starring Scarlett ...

's review in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' identifies the novel as "distinctive and powerful debut, full of brave experiments that generate unexpectedly fierce emotional heat. In a literary scene whose established stars milk tragedies such as

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

for precious little reason beyond their own artistic vanity, Allan has given us something indigestibly, potently true."

References

External links

* Christian Perring
"Review - Poppy Shakespeare"
Metapsychology Online'' (Volume 11, Issue 29), 17 July 2007 2008 British novels Novels set in psychiatric hospitals 2008 debut novels {{2000s-novel-stub