Peter Barham – författare

A few years after packing for London, teenager Debbie Barham was writing the funniest lines for the top names in British comedy. But her genius belied a darker, destructive side that slowly span out of control. By 26 she had died of anorexia. This powerful memoir is her father's search to understand his daughter and make sense of her troubled end.In this poignant memoir of his daughter's short life, Peter Barham sets out to discover the powerful force that drove Debbie to anorexia, whilst inspiring her to write some of the best lines in British comedy. Drawing on her copious e-mails and scripts, and featuring contributions from some of the UK's most famous comedians, including Rory Bremner, Clive Anderson, Ned Sherrin and Bob Monkhouse, Peter takes you from the heady excitement of Debbie's mid-teen years to her troubled, solitary end.‘The Invisible Girl’ is a father's remarkable journey to discover what went wrong in the mysterious and very private world of his daughter. It is a powerful and moving story that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure.

Although the shell-shocked British soldier of World War I has been a favored subject in both fiction and nonfiction, focus has been on the stories of officers, and the history of the rank-and-file servicemen who were psychiatric casualties has never been told. This profoundly moving book recounts the poignant, sometimes ribald histories of this neglected group for the first time. Peter Barham draws on reports from the front lines, case histories, personal letters, and war pensions files to trace the lives and fortunes of a large cast of ex-servicemen who suffered mental breakdowns. He describes their confinements to asylums, the reactions of families to their relatives’ plight, the turmoil of the soldiers when they returned home—and the uphill struggle they faced trying to secure justice from the bureaucratic labyrinth that was the Ministry of Pensions. His book gives a new perspective to the impact of the Great War and to current controversies about disputed postwar maladies.

The aim of contemporary mental health policy is to enable people who have had a severe mental illness to lead relatively independent lives in the community, rather than be sequestered permanently in the large mental hospitals. In recent years plans to hasten the closure of many of these hospitals have become controversial and generated sharp debate about community care. From the Mental Patient to the Person contributes to this debate through an exploration of the experiences of a group of people with a history of schizophrenic illness, who are living in the community.

This book showcases and celebrates the writings of Peter Campbell, an activist, writer, educator, and a veteran survivor of the mental health system, conveying the variety and vitality of Campbell's accomplishments across the years from 1967 to 2022.Diagnosed with severe psychosis and with a history of hospitalizations reaching back to 1967, Peter Campbell was an indefatigable critic of orthodox psychiatry and of many aspects of the mental health system. He was a founder and veteran of the groundbreaking psychiatric survivors’ movement in 1980s and 1990s Britain. The diverse essays within this book cover topics such as seclusion, spiritual crisis, lived experience of psychosis, ECT and psychiatric drugs, and the survivor movement, together with a number of in-depth interviews, as well as other creative contributions such as dramatic scripts and satirical sketches. Brought together, these diverse creations are an eloquent testimony to the humanity, unflagging commitment and staying power of a hugely significant writer, innovator, commentator and critic.Written in Campbell's accessible and witty style, this will be an invaluable resource for practitioners in psychiatry and all disciplines, people with lived experience of psychosis and their relatives and carers, activists, and all concerned with distress and mental wellbeing.

This book showcases and celebrates the writings of Peter Campbell, an activist, writer, educator, and a veteran survivor of the mental health system, conveying the variety and vitality of Campbell's accomplishments across the years from 1967 to 2022.Diagnosed with severe psychosis and with a history of hospitalizations reaching back to 1967, Peter Campbell was an indefatigable critic of orthodox psychiatry and of many aspects of the mental health system. He was a founder and veteran of the groundbreaking psychiatric survivors’ movement in 1980s and 1990s Britain. The diverse essays within this book cover topics such as seclusion, spiritual crisis, lived experience of psychosis, ECT and psychiatric drugs, and the survivor movement, together with a number of in-depth interviews, as well as other creative contributions such as dramatic scripts and satirical sketches. Brought together, these diverse creations are an eloquent testimony to the humanity, unflagging commitment and staying power of a hugely significant writer, innovator, commentator and critic.Written in Campbell's accessible and witty style, this will be an invaluable resource for practitioners in psychiatry and all disciplines, people with lived experience of psychosis and their relatives and carers, activists, and all concerned with distress and mental wellbeing.

The aim of contemporary mental health policy is to enable people who have had a severe mental illness to lead relatively independent lives in the community, rather than be sequestered permanently in the large mental hospitals. In recent years plans to hasten the closure of many of these hospitals have become controversial and generated sharp debate about community care. From the Mental Patient to the Person contributes to this debate through an exploration of the experiences of a group of people with a history of schizophrenic illness, who are living in the community.

A kitchen is no different from most science laboratories and cookery may properly be regarded as an experimental science. Food preparation and cookery involve many processes which are well described by the physical sciences. Understanding the chemistry and physics of cooking should lead to improvements in performance in the kitchen. For those of us who wish to know why certain recipes work and perhaps more importantly why others fail, appreciating the underlying physical processes will inevitably help in unravelling the mysteries of the "art" of good cooking.

Kennen Sie neben süß, sauer, bitter und salzig die fünfte Geschmacksrichtung? Möchten Sie verstehen, warum Ihnen Soufflées immer wieder zusammenfallen oder lernen, wie Sie einen ganzen Truthahn optimal braten? Gehören Sie zu den 40% Männern oder 25% Frauen, die Trüffel nicht riechen können?Diese und viele andere Fragen aus der Welt der Kochkunst beantwortet Peter Barham, in dem er das Kochen als experimentelle Wissenschaft betrachtet. Beim Zubereiten von Lebensmitteln und beim Kochen laufen viele Prozesse ab, die sich naturwissenschaftlich gut beschreiben lassen. Das Verständnis der Chemie und Physik des Kochens wird unausweichlich dazu führen, dass sich auch Ihre eigenen Kochkünste wesentlich verbessern. Für jedermann leicht verständlich und unterhaltsam, aber ohne wichtige Details auszulassen, erklärt Ihnen der Autor, warum bestimmte Rezepte gut funktionieren und – viel wichtiger – warum andere ständig misslingen. Auf diese Weise werden Schritt für Schritt die Geheimnisse der guten Kochkunst entschleiert und Sie lernen interessante Rezepte und die dahinter liegenden physikalischen und chemischen Prozesse kennen. Zusätzlich beschreibt der Autor interessante Küchenexperimente für die ganze Familie.

A kitchen is no different from most science laboratories and cookery may properly be regarded as an experimental science. Food preparation and cookery involve many processes which are well described by the physical sciences. Understanding the chemistry and physics of cooking should lead to improvements in performance in the kitchen. For those of us who wish to know why certain recipes work and perhaps more importantly why others fail, appreciating the underlying physical processes will inevitably help in unravelling the mysteries of the "art" of good cooking.Strong praise from the reviewers -"Will be stimulating for amateur cooks with an interest in following recipes and understanding how they work. They will find anecdotes and, sprinkled throughout the book, scientific points of information... The book is a pleasant read and is an invitation to become better acquainted with the science of cooking." - NATURE"This year, at last, we have a book which shows how a practical understanding of physics and chemistry can improve culinary performance… [Barham] first explains, in a lucid non-textbooky way, the principles behind taste, flavour and the main methods of food preparation, and then gives fool-proof basic recipes for dishes from roast leg of lab to chocolate soufflé." - FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND"This book is full of interesting and relevant facts that clarify the techniques of cooking that lead to the texture, taste and aroma of good cuisine. As a physicist the author introduces the importance of models in preparing food, and their modification as a result of testing (tasting)."- THE PHYSICIST"Focuses quite specifically on the physics and food chemistry of practical domestic cooking in terms of real recipes... Each chapter starts with an overview of the scientific issues relevant to that food group, e.g. toughness of meat, thickening of sauces, collapse of sponge cakes and soufflés. This is followed by actual recipes, withthe purpose behind each ingredient and technique explained, and each recipe followed by a table describing some common problems, causes and solutions. Each chapter then ends with suggested experiments to illustrate some of the scientific principles exploited in the chapter." - FOOD & DRINK NEWSLETTER