Glasgow Therapist Mike Delaney has won a second award for writing giving his first two books the recognition they deserve.

 

Mabel Murphy, his first novel based in the old mental hospital system where he worked as a nurse, has won the Southern California Book Festival Award 2024, having impressed the judges with the topic and story telling aspects. His autobiography, Behind the Smile, has also won The Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for inspirational writing as he tells the honest and gritty story of his life, his self-destruction through addiction and his rise to become a renowned Harley Street Therapist before returning to his homeland six years ago.

Delaney was quarantined in a Barbados Army Camp with Covid 19 in the first wave in March 2020. He was stranded on the island for 3 months before returning home to Scotland which was in in full lockdown. This is when he had the opportunity to sit and write his biography. When this was published and as lockdown continued, he set himself the task of writing a novel and chose the powerful subject of women being placed in mental institutions for falling pregnant out of wedlock. Delaney knew about this as he had worked with several older women over the years who had spent their whole lives locked up for falling pregnant, and many who developed serious mental health issues as a result of that. He thought about these women and created a back story to explain how such a commonplace judgement may have happened. Mabel Murphy was born and a huge fan base has grown around her resilience and love in the face of major trauma and adversity, fighting against all the odds to maintain some order and control in her life.

 

Both books have received excellent reviews and  are nominated for further awards. Both are available from all good bookshops or via Amazon.