Metaphors for madness

The new wave of mental health memoirs Tristimania: a Diary of Manic Depression Jay Griffiths Hamish Hamilton, 224pp. £16.99 Anxiety for Beginners: a Personal Investigation Eleanor Morgan Bluebird, 368pp. £16.99 Mad Girl: a Happy Life With a Mixed-Up Mind Bryony Gordon Headline,320pp. £14.99 I am as pleased as the next person that the appetite for victim memoirs, or "misery memoirs", has largely abated. The subject of mental health is rich territory for writers mining this vein of self-dissolution, since it marries personal narratives with the wider causes of fighting for visibility and understanding, overturning stigma, battling guilt and shame and making the case for openness and acceptance.