THE ASYLUM SOUL is seven years old today!

19th May sees the seventh anniversary of Mal Foster’s debut novel, ‘The Asylum Soul’, and incredibly, its popularity is still soaring…

“I think out of all my work, it will always be remembered as my stand-out publication, chiefly due to its subject matter,” said Mal in a recent radio interview.

The novel tells the tragic and heart-wrenching tale of a young Tommy Compton, who is incarcerated at the Brookwood Lunatic Asylum in Knaphill, near Woking in Surrey. His only ailment… a simple speech defect which these days could easily be cured with modern medical intervention.

The book is written in a diary format and has caught the imaginations of many people who probably would not normally read a full-length novel. A fact that has delighted Mal immensely... “That’s exactly what I was intending to do at the outset, and it's great that people are still enjoying the storyline and asking questions about the characters, seven years after the book was originally published.” 

More about the book…

Lunatic asylums were an inescapable hangover of Victorian Britain and they harnessed a certain stigma borne from an environment of fear and shame as well as the great unknown.

For many families the asylum system helped create their darkest ‘skeletons’, and for Thomas (Tommy) Compton, it was unforgiving. In 1929 he was twenty-three years old when his mother had him sent to The Brookwood Lunatic Asylum in Surrey, his only ailment - a simple speech defect.

Based on Tommy’s own diary notes, The Asylum Soul is a disturbing account of an innocent young life ripped apart by unthinkable institutional failings, false hope and ultimate family betrayal.

What people are saying...

"The best book I've read for a very long time. Film to follow?" - Colin Hampton 

“I have just finished the book, I couldn't put it down. I'm lying in bed with tears rolling down my cheek. It was so powerful and moving. One of the best books I have ever read - so sad, funny in parts and a tragic end. So much credit goes to you for writing such an amazing book.” – Andy Carless

"One of my favourite books, EVER!" - Annie Wheeler

"An awesome read." - Gladys Hayward

'The Asylum Soul' is available from Amazon in eBook and paperback. The paperback can also be bought locally at the Lionsheart Bookshop at Commercial Way in Woking.

BUY NOW

The old Brookwood Lunatic Asylum in Knaphill

#wokingwrites