Main description:

Behind Many Doors is a vivid and revealing portrait of an Edwardian psychiatric hospital in Cardiff, created by those who know it most intimately. Whitchurch Hospital, formerly Cardiff Asylum, will cease to admit in-patients from 2016, marking the beginning of its gradual closure over the following years. This unique anthology seeks to capture, preserve and shine a light on what Whitchurch Hospital has meant and still means to service users, staff, visitors and members of the local community across its long and complex history. Readers are invited to experience the hospital from every angle, from the water tower's outline spied from the top deck of a Cardiff bus, right down to the cigarette burns on the ward carpet. Sometimes shocking, often moving, always illuminating, this collection of writing will compel all those who turn its pages to think anew about the mental healthcare of the past and the future and to look again at a building that has impacted upon the lives of so many.