Mentored by a Madman

"It is hard to believe that this extraordinary memoir is not fiction, but every word  turns out to be rooted in hospital life and literary experience. Andrew Lees is an internationally distinguished neurologist, Britain’s leading Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s expert. Mentored By a Madman is both an exotic memoir and a passionate appeal for a more humane approach to bio-medical research. In associating himself with Burroughs, Professor Lees is arguing that potential breakthroughs in the treatment of neuro-degenerative diseases are most likely to come from a relaxation of the stringent controls surrounding the profession.”

-- Robert McCrum * Observer *

"Mentored by a Madman is the story of Andrew Lees' uncommon career in neurology, with his many scientific insights into movement disorders, his rapport with the past, and his talent for literary expression. Creative inspiration in neuroscience, Lees tells us, can come from unlikely sources—the notebooks of Richard Spruce, great 19th-century botanical explorer of Brazil; and Burroughs, the maverick interpreter of drug experience. There are parallels with the writings of Oliver Sacks, especially when patients enter the narrative. To a greater degree, though, this book inhabits the neurologist's inner world—observing, attending to detail, engaged in detective work."

-- Peter A. Kempster * Neurology *

"Yes, do read this book to discover how William S. Burroughs inspired a professional lifetime of brilliant medical research. But read it as well, perhaps even more so, to be reminded of what genuine medical care can and should be…No technical knowledge is required to profit from this marvellous book.” 

* Canadian Bulletin of Medical History *

“[Lees’s] book is not just a wonderfully unexpected addition to the Burroughs literature, but an important polemic for more humane and imaginative medical research.” 

-- Phil Baker * The Times Literary Supplement *

“Lees takes the reader on an extraordinary journey inside and outside the brain. His deep humanity and honesty shines throughout. The inevitable comparison with the late, great Oliver Sacks is entirely just.”

-- Raymond Tallis
‘A remarkable and genre-bending book… Like Sacks’s work, it is compelling, sensitive, and compassionate.’ -- Jonathan Taylor
‘Not just a wonderfully left-field addition to the Burroughs literature, but an important polemic for more humane and imaginative medical research. I was sorry to reach the end.’ * Fortean Times *

'Lees travels in William Burroughs' footsteps to the Colombian Amazon to take ayahuasca, the hallucinogenic potion that Burroughs described as the ultimate fix. Overwhelmed by convulsive nausea and scintillating visions, he lurches into a new dimension of being in which I understand for the first time how during hurricanes, chair-bound victims of Parkinson s disease can magically override their condition. Like his disreputable mentor, he resolves to swim against the tide to fly crookedly in my curiosity for cures.'

* Literary Revi