Picking up the pieces - Paul Britton

The extraordinary and fascinating new book by the author of the award-winning bestseller The Jigsaw Man

Forensic
psychologist Paul Britton can 'walk through the minds' of those who
murder, rape, torture, extort and kidnap. He can see the world through
their eyes and know what they're thinking. That is why the police have
called on him to help with many high-profile criminal investigations and
catch those responsible.

How does he do it? Paul Britton's newest book, Picking Up the Pieces,
reveals the psychological and forensic foundations upon which he has
based his expertise. It is a remarkable journey into the darkest
recesses of the human mind. From top security prisons and mental
hospitals to ordinary outpatients' clinics, Britton introduces us to his
clinical and forensic work. A man turns into a werewolf at four o'clock
every afternoon. Another has built an electric chair in his basement to
kill his father. A woman accepts the blame for abusing her child when
she had nothing to do with it. How can they be helped? When Britton so
accurately profiled the child killers of Jamie Bulger in Liverpool, or
told police the true nature of Frederick and Rosemary West, he could do
so because he had treated disturbed children and confronted sadistic
sexual murderers in his consulting room.


For twenty-five
years Britton has interviewed, assessed and treated people with damaged
or broken minds. Some were
responsible for terrible crimes, others were
stopped before it was too late. The answers aren't hidden at bloody
crime scenes or in the post-mortem photographs. Instead, the truth is
often locked away within someone's mind or deep in their past.

Picking Up the Pieces is not a sequel to Britton's award-winning autobiography The Jigsaw Man, but a companion volume that shows the heart of his work and the knowledge that underpins his conclusions.

It is a unique and revealing book that will fascinate and provoke discussion.

Paul Britton was born in 1946. Following degrees obtained in psychology
from Warwick and Sheffield universities, he has spent the last twenty
years working as a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist. He has
advised the Association of Chief Police Officers' Crime Committee on
offender profiling for many years and currently teaches postgraduates in
clinical and forensic psychology. He is married with two children. Paul
Britton is the author of Picking Up the Pieces and The Jigsaw Man, which won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction.