Overdose

by Jennifer Barraclough

Camilla, a kindhearted but not entirely competent young doctor, is training to become a psychiatrist. Having fallen under the spell of an enigmatic senior colleague, she is struggling to combine the demands of her job with pursuit of their illicit affair. After one of the patients in her therapy group takes a fatal overdose, Camilla gets involved in a tragicomic series of misadventures. With elements of satire, mystery and romance, Overdose has been described as giving a "gripping but shocking" picture of the dark side of psychiatric practice in 1980s England. Set in the forgotten world of a mental asylum, its medical background is largely authentic, but the plot and characters are fictional and not intended to be taken too seriously.

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2015

About the author

My first career was in orthodox medicine. I worked in the hospital specialties of cancer care and general psychiatry, and spent some time in rural general practice. From 1991-2000 I held the post of Consultant in Psychological Medicine at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, England. I published a number of medical books and research papers. Then I moved to Auckland with my New Zealand-born husband, and trained as a Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner and Life Coach. Writing is now my main pursuit, with several books on holistic healing and natural therapies, three short novels and another on the way. I also edited my uncle's memoir 'Geoffrey Guy's War: Memoirs of a Spitfire Pilot'. Other interests are choral singing and animal welfare.