New Midhurst novel explores "psychosis in the Home Counties"

SussexWorld

Amdram and small-town English life take centre stage in Eleanor Anstruther’s new book, a darkly satirical tale of psychosis in the Home Counties set in Midhurst.

Transcript

00:00Good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, Griep Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. I'll be

00:05this morning to speak to Eleanor Anstruther. Now, you have a fabulous sounding book out

00:10at the end of January 2025, In Judgment of Others. Interesting in itself, but interesting

00:15too that you are setting this in Midhurst. Why Midhurst? What does Midhurst represent

00:21in this book?

00:22Midhurst is a town I know very well. That's one of the reasons I chose it, because I did

00:29not have to make too big a stretch in terms of research. I also chose it for its varying

00:35economic, the makeup of its community. There's a great variation in Midhurst, but it's not

00:42always apparent that that's the case. And I think that's something in the book that

00:45I wanted to explore. And also because the dominant community in terms of the kind of

00:53the gang of Midhurst, I think individually people are all interesting and sort of not

00:59like they are when they get in a gang. But Midhurst tends to invite, particularly because

01:03it's got a big polo presence there, it tends to invite quite a kind of competitive material

01:11thinking around the sort of gang mentality of Midhurst.

01:13And that's the world you plunge into?

01:16Well, I plunge into the kind of aspiring middle and upper middle classes, agas, barbers, range

01:27rovers, that kind of thing. And we do move around that. But I was just really interested

01:34in having a look at that particular section of society, because I think there's an awful

01:40lot of hidden around addictions. And this book is about mental health and about which

01:44mental health conditions we accept and celebrate, and which addictions we accept and celebrate,

01:50and which ones we section.

01:53Goodness, I see the book is labelled as a darkly satirical tale of psychosis,

01:57home county psychosis. Sounds very...

02:00That's right. Yeah.

02:03Brilliant. Well, really lovely to speak to you.

02:07Oh, thank you so much.

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