You Never Met My Father - Graeme Sparkes

Graeme Sparkes father was deployed to Kaitaichi, Japan a few months after Hiroshima, aged just 18. A few months later, he had a psychotic episode and spent the next four months in a Japanese psychiatric hospital. This Australian memoir by Melbouorne resident and TESOL teacher, Graeme Sparkes is in the same vein as Angelas Ashes. It details the challenges of growing up in the 50s and 60s with a father who had severe mental illness and a gambling addiction. Growing up with a father who was responsible for two sieges, one of them 18 hours, and second for almost 24 hours when he convinced police he had petrol bombs in the house. Sparkes had to get a Freedom of Information order to access all of his late fathers medical records, which were held at Veteran Affairs. What followed was a journey of discovery, grief and compassion, as the story of his fathers mental illness took place at a time when support groups and mental health awareness organisations did not exist. Sparkes own biological son was adopted out as the turbulence of his life reached saturation point due to years of psychological trauma inflicted by his father. Sparkes wrote this book as a way of explanation to his son as to how and why he came to give him up. They have since formed a good relationship. A stunning memoir about the inter-generational effects of mental illness.