Tell Me I’m Here

Teacher Resource Essay

Publisher's synopsis

This is the compelling story of Jonathan, a charming teenager who turns into a fearful and tormented young man; it is also the heart-rending story of a mother facing the realisation that her child is going mad. First published in 1991, this book has become a classic, and is as moving and as relevant today as it ever was. This 1998 edition has been updated with a new Foreword from the author detailing the effects this book has had on society, both in Australia and worldwide; a new Afterword which discusses the advances in treatments for schizophrenia and developments in community attitudes and programs for mental illnesses in general; and a new, up-to-date section on Where to Go for Help.

Awards

Human Rights Award • Winner • 1991 • Non-Fiction
Colin Roderick Award • Shortlisted • 1991 • Best Book
FAW Award • Shortlisted • 1991 • Book of the Year
Miscelleneous Award • Shortlisted • 1992 • Miscellaneous
The Age Book of the Year • Shortlisted • 1992 • Non-Fiction
Victorian Premier’s Literary Award • Shortlisted • 1992 • Non-Fiction
Braille & Talking Book Library Award-VIC • Winner • 1994 • Miscellaneous

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Meet Me at the Intersection

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Ugly (Younger Readers)

Anne Deveson

Anne Deveson is a writer, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker with a long involvement in human rights issues. She was born in Kuala Lumpur; spent her childhood moving between Malaysia, Britain and Australia, then worked as a journalist for the BBC and the London bureau of the New York Times. In Australia, she became the first woman to run her own daily current affairs radio program. In 1974, she was appointed a Royal Commissioner with the Royal Commission on Human Relationships and in 1978, a founding member of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board.

Her writing includes the internationally acclaimed Tell Me I’m Here, which won the 1991 Human Rights Award for non-fiction. She has also written Australian at Risk, Faces of Change, Coming of Age, Lines in the Sand, Resilience and Waging Peace.

Bio: Penguin Books Australia

As one of the first personal accounts of schizophrenia written in Australia, this moving, powerful and unflinchingly honest story by Anne Deveson of her son Jonathan’s losing battle with the disease was the catalyst for a more open and compassionate attitude to schizophrenia in Australian society.

Australian Society of Authors

Further Details

Author Anne Deveson

Publisher Penguin Random House Australia

Date of Publication 1991

ISBN 9780140272574

Category Memoir

SCIS Number

5460613

Pages

304