Manicdotes - There's Madness In His Method

Madness and genius are often said to be close bedfellows, although the link between the two is little understood.Chris Joseph has known both extremes, and in Manicdotes: There's Madness in His Method, he lays bare his struggle with bi-polar disorder and the condition's pendulum-like swing between creative dynamism and dark despair.After walking out of university and briefly dabbling with life as a Benedictine monk and nightclub bouncer, Chris went to work at a dilapidated North East iron foundry where he lost his right arm in a horrific industrial accident.The accident was the springboard to a new career in the world of advertising - and the trigger for the mental illness which was to blight his life.Having established his own award-winning agency - renowned for its off-the-wall creative thinking - Chris also used his considerable creative skills to publicise and settle High Court copyright and banking disputes with major corporations, most notably Barclays Bank.Manicdotes: There's Madness in His Method is a graphic, moving and frequently hilarious account of his life as a manic depressive, the highs which drove the creation of multi-million pound advertising campaigns giving way to bouts of deep depression and enforced hospitalisation.The stories can be read together or in isolation - they tell the tale of an extraordinary man whose struggle to overcome physical and mental obstacles will be an inspiration to anyone facing the stigma of mental illness.