I am a writer, novelist and cultural commentator. I was for many years Chair of the Freud Museum London and President of English PEN. I am a Visiting Professor in Literature and Medical Humanities at King’s College London and was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of my contribution to literature.

I’m fascinated by the subject of emotions: extreme emotions, madness, Freud, the therapeutic and psychiatric professions. I’ve written books on anger, on love and trials of passions, and on women. My non-fiction includes Trials of Passion: Crimes in the Name of Love and Madness, All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion; Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present; Freud’s Women (with John Forrester); and a biographical portrait of Simone de Beauvoir.