Publication day at last! After four years planning, refining, writing, and re-writing, my book, Off the Deep End: A History of Madness at Sea, is finally out. No going back now! So what was the original inspiration? This book started life as a story about the psychology of the sea - inspired by an old book I came across called Psychology of Sailing by Michael Stadler (Adlard Coles, 1987) – and indeed the opening chapter of Off the Deep End borrows heavily from Stadler. My original chapter headings (back in September 2013) were: HEALTH, ILLUSIONS, MADNESS, RELATIONSHIPS/MUTINY, FREEDOM and TECHNOLOGY. It soon became clear, however, that the chapter about madness had the best stories and the most emotional resonance. So I turned it around and made that the focus of the book, with some of the other subjects snuck in alongside it. It took another 2 1/2 years before I finally signed a contract with Adlard Coles (an imprint of Bloomsbury) and started work on the book in earnest. And here, four years later, is the result. Even though it's the 18th book I've written or co-written, it still somehow feels like the first. It's certainly the most interesting, so go buy yourself a copy, and prove that my four-year-long obsession was worthwhile! Off the Deep End: A History of Madness at Sea