It's 1997 and Tanya is a high-achieving sixth-former at an exclusive private school, blessed with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle and a close, loving family. But at weekends the dutiful daughter and model student is replaced by a reckless thrill-seeker who pulls drug-fuelled all-nighters in acid house clubs. Tanya thinks she has her double life under control. But soon the drug-induced mood swings take a more sinister and dangerous turn, as she lurches between depression and exaltation. Things finally fall apart when a terrifying sexual encounter gives rise to a full-blown psychotic breakdown and a prolonged stay in mental hospital.
IN BLOOM, Cordelia Feldman's debut novel, is a semi-autobiographical account of one girl's development of bipolar disorder and how it changes her understanding of herself and her future. It also offers frank and funny insights into the volatile nature of teenage friendships, in which affection and loyalty jostle with irritation and disappointment.
This novel, aimed at a high-end young adult readership, will also have broad appeal to parents of teenagers, anyone affected by bipolar disorder, and Generation X-ers who were part of the clubbing scene of the 1990s.
IN BLOOM is illustrated with 12 beautiful and atmospheric photographs by Maria Monroe.
About the Author: Cordelia Feldman showed an early talent for writing, penning her first (unpublished) novel at age 14. She completed the first draft of
In Bloom
for a writing competition and expanded and polished it while studying for an MA in Creative Writing at London's Birkbeck University.
A straight-A student throughout her schooldays, Cordelia went on to study Modern History at Oxford University. It was during her undergraduate days that she started experiencing the extreme mood swings that were eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder, a chronic mental illness in which periods of severe depression alternate with spells of mania.
One of the reasons Cordelia wrote the book was to make people aware of early signs of the disorder. 'If a teenager exhibiting Tanya's symptoms reads my book and thinks "that's me, that's my problem", or a parent or friend recognises the behaviour of someone they love in Tanya's situation, this book will have served a useful purpose.'
In her early 30s, Cordelia suffered an additional cruel blow, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which has since spread to other organs. Now aged 41, Cordelia has done a great deal to raise public awareness of both bipolar disease and early-onset cancer and is an experienced media interviewee.
In 2006 Cordelia played a prominent role in Stephen Fry's BAFTA nominated and EMMY award-winning documentary
The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive
, and in the follow-up Part 2 in 2012. She has spoken about her experience of breast cancer on
BBC News
, BBC Radio Four's
Woman's Hour,
and her experience of bipolar on
Sky
. She
was one of five 'real women' who starred in Estee Lauder's Pink Campaign film to raise awareness of breast cancer in 2014. Cordelia has also broadcast on BBC Three Counties Radio and recorded her own audio book version of IN BLOOM.