Author(s): Neil Cole

General Fiction

This book explores the life of Colonial John Surry. A fictional character based on fact. A manic-depressive pleads not guilty on the grounds of his insanity to the biggest crime of theft ever committed in the state of Queensland, Australia. No one has ever pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity for a theft matter before. The novel recounts the coarse of his mental illness during his army service in the Second World War, in the Middle East, in the Pacific and after the war leading up to this event. The book takes place in the sixties against the backdrop of the insanity of the Vietnam War which he totally opposes. Neil has based this novel on extensive interviews with people with bi-polar and other mental illnesses, leading to a fictional work that charts the coarse of a person with manic depression.