The A–Z Guide to Good Mental Health: You Don't Have to be Famous to Have Manic Depression - Jeremy Thomas and Dr Tony Hughes, Penguin Books, 2008, £10.00, 336 pp., ISBN 978-0-141032-17-7

This book is written by a man with bipolar affective disorder and his doctor, who is also a personal friend of his. It is divided into several sections and has a foreword by a famous person with manic depression: Stephen Fry. Dr Tony Hughes and Stephen Fry also collaborated on the recent television documentary.

The distinct sections of the book are: a dialogue between the authors about Jeremy Thomas's bipolar disorder; a selection of life stories from other people who also have bipolar; and an extended glossary and information section - the ‘insider's guide to mental health’. This last section also includes a wealth of websites and addresses intending to point the reader in other useful resources.

It is a layperson's guide to having a mental health problem; the language is simple or explained and there is an attempt to use humour and cartoons to counter some of the seriousness of the subject matter.

The really good thing about this book is that it is extraordinarily frank about how difficult it can be being around someone with a serious mental health problem and about the strange situations such a person can get themselves into. It's also very positive: all of the contributors have found coping skills and appear to be living satisfactory and/or successful lives.

I really enjoyed the ‘insider's guide to mental health’ section. It's a bit off the wall and as well as containing information one would expect on, for example, medication, the Mental Health Act and various mental health problems, it also contains information on poets, Saturn and the Simpsons. Interestingly though, it does not mention hearing voices or having hallucinations at all. I completely disagreed with their choices of music ‘to reflect upon the darker side of life’ and ‘to fill you with the joys of spring’ but was very amused that they have been included.

I also liked the short life stories from a group of people with bipolar disorder; however, the dialogue section at the beginning of the book was harder for me to read. I found comments such as ‘Tony Hancock was certainly an alcoholic depressive’ difficult because I don't think Tony Hancock was just a psychiatric label - he was a person with an alcohol and depression problem. I was also a bit bemused by the comparison of Alcoholics Anonymous and going to church.

Overall though, this would be a good book to recommend to someone who had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (though they would have to be told manic depression is the same thing). It covers all the basics and demonstrates that someone with this ‘illness’ can find ways of living with it and even laugh about it.