Co-authored by Hugh Purcell and his wife Margaret Percy, Up Top tells how the mentally ill were treated in the 20th century, focusing on the Mid Wales Mental Hospital, which began as a lunatic asylum and closed when community care took over 100 years later. It was the only UK hospital for psychotic POWs in World War II, including, briefly, the Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess. This account is based on original archives and oral testimony from staff and patients, and is copiously illustrated.
May 2018
