Rod Madocks specialises in writing on the difficult world of mental health and social work, having great sympathy for life’s casualties. Tonight he will be reading from Our Tan: memoir of a destroyed life, a lament for the loss of a young woman and a savage critique of the institutions that failed her.

Tania Blair was a young mother of two boys leading an unremarkable life in County Durham until social services took a hand. Once a front-line social worker himself, Rod Madocks uses his own experience to explore the faulty rationale and inept practices of child protection teams. This memoir casts an unforgiving eye on health and social care agencies in general and on the fate of the English working class as they are tipped down the maw of a globalised future. Our Tan is a book that had to be written because no other avenues of help were left.

A transgressive writer, Rod Madocks is the author of two novels and a collection of short stories exploring themes of crime, guilt and loss. He has also published a memoir on the WW2 poet Sidney Keyes. His work has been shortlisted for a Crime Writing Association Dagger Award. He had a twenty year career working in maximum security psychiatric units and mental health teams before becoming a full time writer.

John Lucas, Rod Madocks’ editor at Shoestring Press has had a long career as a poet and critic and a late-flowering career as a writer of fiction. His books also include a short history of whistling, published by Five Leaves.  John follows his four novels with a collection of short fiction, launched tonight,  The Hotel of Dreams and other stories.

Free, refreshments included. Please let us know you are coming on events@fiveleaves.co.uk