Pembroke Undergraduate Nancy Tucker Publishes Second Book on Mental Health

We are pleased to report that Pembroke undergraduate student Nancy Tucker (BA Experimental Psychology, 2015) has published her second book on mental health titled That Was When People Started to Worry, which explores the reality of living with mental illness through real life testimonies.

The publication considers seven conditions: anxiety, self-harm, borderline personality disorder, OCD, binge eating disorder, PTSD and dissociative identity disorder. It stems from 70 interviews which Tucker carried out with female sufferers aged between 16 and 24.

Nancy began her writing career with The Time In Between: A Memoir of Hunger and Hope (2014). At a time of increasing public conversations around mental health, the subject is experiencing a long overdue moment and Nancy’s work fills a gap in this landscape.

She explains: ‘What we lack are books which combine the personal with the academic, placing stories of suffering in the context of the root of that suffering – and which do so sensitively, honestly and readably. I wanted to offer readers a unique window into the day-to-day trials of living with an unwell mind.’

Commissioning editor Kiera Jamison of Icon Books added: ‘We are delighted to be working with Nancy again. Her observations are keen, her tone in turns humorous, sharp and poignant, and towards her subjects deeply compassionate. She pushes us all to do better in how we think, talk about and treat mental illness, particularly in young women.’

Nancy recently wrote an article for the Guardian about her publication, which can be read here.