Book Reviews

It is a truism that there is more than one way of looking at a subject and combining this with the idea that novels are legitimate publications for review we are trying as a special feature something rarely tried before and that is to have three different people review the same book. Not only that but the novel in question Zone of the Interior by Clancy Sigal has a chequered reputation and the status of being something a hybrid – a fictionalised account of a real event that happened some 40 or so years ago. What makes it even more interesting is that all three reviewers do not come to the job of reviewing the book without some personal knowledge and involvement with the subject. One often needs some distance from past events to be able to assess them accurately and the theme of the special feature of how we can understand the legacy and influence of RD Laing is continued in a re-assessment of the functioning and demise of the Paddington Day Hospital in London.