All In Your Head is about what happens when your doctor doesn’t believe that you’re ill. When they think you are imagining a serious ailment, or worse, faking it. It’s the story of the stigma that goes with invisible illness, and of the strange places that chronic illness takes you. It’s the tale of bizarre treatments, and above all, the damage that’s created through other people’s doubts and indifference. Yet, there is an epidemic of undiagnosed, hard-to-explain, and misunderstood illnesses in today’s world, with new illnesses such as long-COVID steadily emerging. It is often up to individuals to drive their own search for recognition and a diagnosis, a task that can prove challenging due to establishment scepticism and disinterest. With honesty, and at times, dark humour, All In Your Head – from multiple award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick – explores how four simple words can make you question your sense of reality.
Author
Marcus Sedgwick was born in Kent, England. Marcus is a British author and illustrator as well as a musician. He is the author of several books, including Witch Hill and The Book of Dead Days, both of which were nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. The most recent of these nominations rekindled a fascination with Poe that has borne fruit here in (in The Restless Dead, 2007) the form of "The Heart of Another" - inspired by Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Of his story, Sedgwick says, "This was one of those stories that I thought might be a novel originally but actually was much better suited to the tight form of the short story. I had the initial idea some years ago but was just waiting for the right ingredient to come along. Poe's story, as well as his own fascination with technique, provided that final piece of the puzzle." He used to play for two bands namely playing the drums for Garrett and as the guitarist in an ABBA tribute group. He has published novels such as Floodland (winner of the Branford Boase Award in 2001) and The Dark Horse (shortlisted for The Guardian Children's Book Award 2002).
