Mind on Fire: Arnold Thomas Fanning's 'decade of madness'

Here, in an exclusive extract, the playwright recalls the immediate aftermath of a nervous breakdown, and his transfer to a mental institution. This, reader, is not for the faint of heart

There are two RUC men, and they put me in the back of their car and drive me to the police station nearby. Watching the back of their heads, how they glance at each other now and then, and then at me in the rear-view mirror, I begin to calm, and want to chat with these two saviours of mine.

“Do you have families?” I ask them.

“Oh, aye, we have families,” says ...