Poppy Shakespeare
| Author | Clare Allan |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Poppy Shakespeare is a novel about mental illness by Clare Allan. It tells the story of day patients at a mental health hospital. The central characters are Poppy Shakespeare, a new patient, and "N", a long-term patient. Poppy arrives at the hospital strongly asserting that she is sane and demanding to be released from the program. To gain legal aid she must first prove she is sick so that she can get "MAD money", a.k.a. state benefits. She is befriended by N, who helps her work the system.
Author Clare Allan spent 10 years in a mental health institution.
The book was adapted by Sarah Williams and Cowboy Films to a 90-minute drama shown on Channel 4 on 31 March 2008 and starred Anna Maxwell Martin as N and Naomie Harris as Poppy. The book was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award 2006, the Orange Award for New Writers 2007 and the BT Mind Book of the year 2007 and long-listed for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007.
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