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"Wreaking".....a book based at Severalls Hospital | Books and Media | 28DaysLater.co.uk

"Wreaking".....a book based at Severalls Hospital

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Leeds(Ex)plorer

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
the BBC link is bollocks

Inside a derelict asylum

More than 50 years ago Enoch Powell, the then health minister, announced the closure of the great old Victorian and Edwardian asylums - refuge for some, incarceration and controversial treatment for others.

But years on some still lie derelict, waiting to be demolished or redeveloped. <b>They're broken into</b> by vandals and <b>urban explorers.</b> They also provide ideas for artists and writers.

Author James Scudamore - whose new book, Wreaking, is based around an old Lunatic Asylum - found inspiration at the empty Severalls Hospital in Colchester, where redevelopment is planned. With BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he took one last look around before the doors finally slam shut.
 

sageman

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
"doors slam in sequence" yep thats when you know Michal is hot on your tail
 

JuJu

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I don't read the daily mail but am enjoying the book at the moment although I do find it rather jarring and have already decided that all of the main characters are quite mad although am only about a quarter of the way through the book.
 

Res0nanc3

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
well worth buying and reading. Yes the characters are all pretty crazy in their own special ways!!
 

ASOM

One-Man Urbex Art Army
28DL Full Member
I would say yes, but then I'm biased since I wrote it! More info - including a trailer that features some good photos of Severalls, Warley and others - here if you're interested:

[link removed to trailer and purchase site]

I've read it all the way through (some months ago in fact, after it was featured on the Bethlem Royal reading group list), and really enjoyed it. It was an interesting, quirky story, with well-defined characters and a great sense of place established in the main asylum and the annexe/isolation hospital in which the main characters live, although I think those who, like myself, have spent hours in abandoned asylums probably get rather more of a strange sense of nostalgia out of it than than a reader who hasn't might.

I would not have taken Severalls as the inspiration, and was thinking of Hellingly if anywhere, with the near-coastal setting.

I wish there had really been something like the dome under the lake somewhere...
 

jamesscudamore

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, Hellingly was another big inspiration.

The dome under the lake is inspired by a place called Witley Park, in Surrey. The house burned down but the dome is still there. Stick Witley Park into Google Images and you'll see it...


Thanks to all those who've said they enjoyed the novel. Re the underwater dome: it was inspired by Witley Park in Surrey, which was featured on this site here:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/...-December-2012
 

JuJu

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I was reading this but gave up about 3/4 of the way through. Didn't really get on with the writing style but can see why others would like it.
 

DrGonzo

Hello Officer
28DL Full Member
Can't comment on the book (yet), but anyone checked access to the witley dome?! Think I'll be heading to surrey soon...
 

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