The Guardian

Barbara Taylor: 'Waking up in a mental hospital isn't something you plan for'

Ward 16 of Friern Barnet mental asylum was an "acute admissions" ward, meaning it was meant for people in a highly disturbed state, needing plenty of care (and drugs) until they stabilised and could ...
Houston Chronicle

Memoir recalls life inside what was England's largest insane asylum

Barbara Taylor was a promising young historian when madness struck. She wound up at Friern Mental Hospital, an institution outside London. Friern once was the largest asylum for the mentally ill in ...
Macleans.ca

RBC Taylor Prize Nominees: Barbara Taylor’s The Last Asylum

In 1988, Saskatoon-born historian Barbara Taylor, overwhelmed by anxiety and self-medicated with alcohol and tranquilizers, was admitted to London’s Friern Hospital. Her long years of madness, as she ...
The Washington Post

Historian recollects the demons of her own past in ‘The Last Asylum’

Barbara Taylor was a promising young historian when madness struck. She wound up at Friern Mental Hospital, an institution outside London. Friern was once the largest asylum for the mentally ill in ...
The Financial Times

‘The Last Asylum’, by Barbara Taylor

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times, by Barbara Taylor, Hamish Hamilton, RRP£18.99, 320 pages In ...