Short Stories & Poetry by Maureen Oliver

ISBN: 978-1-84747-4575
Published: 2007

Description

 

Artist and author Maureen Oliver brings us this eclectic and inspirational book of short stories and poetry drawing from her experiences of love, life and madness. This is a heart-warming, up-lifting and witty collection of works.

 

The Diary of a Survivor by Maureen Oliver

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK
ISBN: 978-1-904610-05-1 Published: 2006

Description

Breaking Down is the personal record of a psychotic breakdown. The author has faithfully recorded her visions and voices; the diary shows how the author has struggled to survive schizophrenia.

Book Extract

"I keep arriving at the FIRE. Voices urge me to enter it - say I must enter it - that I am already starting to go into it. I stand in the enclosed space of the tunnel, surrounded by damp, dripping rocks. I am naked and vulnerable - the fire burns before me up into the darkness, across the pathway. Its flames are blue-green tipped, orange at centre, the pathway to one side slips away to bottomless depths where I feel dark water flows - the other side is the solid rock - I can see the pathway continuing on the other side winding on and on, twisting slightly - far in the distance is turquoise light - a black, eye-like sun blinks through a tiny opening - golden rays - like shining lashes radiate from it. I am cold - the fire does not give off warmth - I am icy-cold, ice burning in the darkness. Voices: 'You see what you've done Maureen?' What have I done? I don't see at all."

Breaking Down & Poetry
By Maureen Oliver
ISBN: 978-1-84747-121-5 Published: 2007

Description

This is a collection of Maureen's first two books - Breaking Down (see above) and Poetry, both first published as e-books and now available for the first time in paperback.

Poetry

This inspiring collection of poems was written over a twenty-five year period and documents the experiences and thoughts of the author during this most tumultuous period of her life. Her poems are warm and her language elegant.

Being Icarus by Maureen Oiver
ISBN: 978-1-84747-210-6 Published 2007

Description

 

Prolific artist and author Maureen Oliver brings us her autobiography. This is the story of Maureen's activism, her fight against mental illness, the travels, the traumas and the ups and downs of an extraordinary life. Maureen writes with honesty and imagination and in a manner that is refreshingly matter of fact.

Book Extract

"Autumn of 1987 - the great storm tore through the South London suburb where I lived with my children. I shivered in the darkness of that night as a mighty tree outside my window threatened to uproot and smash into the house. Clutching a birdcage with my children's budgies in it, I crouched on the carpet alongside the cat, and my dog, Bootie. It all seemed strangely symbolic, especially when I learned later that the eye of the storm had been a caravan park in East Sussex. My Mother's retreat, her much loved bolt hole, had been there and she had died in February; the destruction seemed meant."