86. Biographical notes
An uneventful boyhood and some academic achievements saw me through tertiary education,
which I completed in 1972 with a BA Honours in Combined Humanities – an aegrotat, because of
the emergence of diagnosable symptoms in my final year. I was 21 years old.
The slur cast by the nature of my diagnosis ensured that there were no opportunities to pursue
vocational training, so my vocation of librarian remains on hold to this day. No employment in
any capacity left me with five years punctuated with a break-down, four months' hospitalisation
and continuing treatment for schizophrenia, until employment resettlement pointed me in
the direction of a library supplier sweat-shop in Nottingham, where I remained full-time
for fifteen years. Harassment and a poorly disguised disregard for my abilities and
potential led me to abandon ship in the early 1990s.
For many, schizophrenia is a life-sentence, but the redeeming quality of any predicament is that
some good can come from it. This book has a worthwhile role in fighting stigma by displacing
the negativity which hangs around the achievements of people with mental ill-health with
something to sustain us. I am indebted for the encouragement I have received from a number
of well-wishers, but especial acknowledgements and thanks are due to
Peter & Jenny Moore ~ Roger Strange ~ Rosemary Renouf.
Rodney Yates
2012
http://fantasticimagi.ning.com
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Nottingham Mental Health Awareness Weeks