As short as a hangman's rope and nearly as arresting - an essay of great gravity and resonance. Never has Styron used so few words so effectively

Imagine our joy when Vintage announced that it is publishing a collection of easily digestible books from the world’s most celebrated writers on the experiences that make us human… They look good and read well. That’s win/win in our book.

Parks, who is best-known for his Toujours Provence-like memoirs of life in Italy, succeeds admirably in bringing difficult ideas down a level. Eleanora Gallitelli, his Italian partner, who accompanies him to a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg for research purposes, also helps. Gallitelli recently told me that she is deaf in one ear. The story of her sudden irreparable deafness — how her brain began to develop a mind of its own, playing tricks with spatial awareness and balance — is quite brilliantly told here. Parks writes well enough to appeal to the layman and the mind boffin alike. Out of My Head is pleasurably nutty, self-regarding and at times quite hilarious.

[A] fantastic journey into the human brain...Parks makes an excellent point about what he calls the "internalist" position (that our picture of reality is just that: a subjective one, concocted by our brains), which is that it flatters our sense of our own importance, making of us creators of our own effectively unique worlds.

By describing his efforts to understand the phenomenon of consciousness in the form of a candid and entertaining journal-cum-memoir, Tim Parks has made a difficult subject interesting and accessible. He is an amateur in this crowded field but he presents professional neuroscientists with some challenging questions.

An exceptionally witty and compelling look at the nature of consciousness... In tackling consciousness, the full frontal assault, as often practised by philosophers and, in a different way, by neuroscientists, can only get us so far. Tim Parks' new book is a refreshing attempt to creep up on the hard question obliquely; and to take the argument deeper into the very realm of our embodied experience than it usually goes. The result is lucid, witty and engaging: a deft philosophical juggling act providing, in an honourable tradition, more questions than answers... A confessed outsider to both academic philosophy and neuroscience, Parks demonstrates the truth that sometimes the outsider sees most of the game. And he has done his homework... Parks is not only excellent company, but a worthy debating partner. He is a delight to read.

Tim Parks considers midlife crisis, a Pixar cartoon and ‘spread mind’ theory in his thoughtful quest to understand consciousness....Consciousness is weighty philosophical and scientific ground, yet Parks plots a chatty, accessible path through impenetrable academic papers and conferences on his quest to understand more about being human

A lucid investigation into the nature of experience and its grounding in the brain. Many readers will delight in Parks’s vivid rendering of complex ideas. He has a masterful capacity to entertain theories of the nature of consciousness not as abstract objects of academic scrutiny but as living concerns. These concerns illuminate from within his personal reflections on meditation, love, age, and dreaming.

A brisk, chatty and light-hearted account of Parks’s encounters with neurologists and philosophers looking for the location of consciousness

An essential book... Part sociological polemic and part self-help book, it zones in on some of the issues that disproportionately affect the gay community, from depression and anxiety to drug and alcohol addiction and body and eating disorders. I found myself both deeply upset and hugely relieved by its candour. After reading the book, tender as it is, you can’t help but want to share your own experiences. Consider Straight Jacket a call to arms.

Matthew Todd thought he had long since dealt with the demons surrounding his sexuality. In [his] new book, he reveals the crisis of shame facing the gay community – and how to solve it.

Straight Jacket is a really brilliant and moving read for everybody, especially LGBTQ+ people. Thanks Matthew.

Straight Jacket documents Todd’s own childhood experiences, and the long-term mental health and addiction issues he has suffered; he is also using it to call for a government inquiry into the experiences of LGBT children at school.

There are some uncomfortable and downright terrifying truths in Todd’s brilliant, essential new book... It’s difficult to underestimate the importance of Straight Jacket. It’s fundamentally a call to arms, a wide-ranging, desperately heartfelt cri de coeur… The gay community needs to look at ways of taking better care of itself, being nicer to each other and offering and providing support when it’s needed.

Cannot put it down… a book like this is long overdue.

An honest and perceptive book.

A smashing book.

Excellent… A valuable contribution to mental health and a must read.

It’s an important book. I had to read it right through. It tackles some tough issues and is searingly honest

I got so much out of that book and I know a lot of people have. It’s helping a lot of people. It’s a bible.

I’m about to read Straight Jacket for a second time. Brilliant, important, inspiring, brave.

An honest insight into LGBTQ life that everybody should be enlightened about regardless of sexuality.

This powerful book, I believe, will save lives. I’d like to see every gay man read this.

A superb book… Have read it twice now.

The book we should all be talking about.

Thank you for writing this book. It is a must read.

One of the best books we have ever read. Honest, thought provoking and much needed.

Finally started to read Straight Jacket. I’m already blown away. An incredibly honest and insightful read. Bravo Matthew.

This book should have been written a long time ago, but it wasn't...Everyone, no matter what their background, will benefit from reading this book. A much-needed and healing work of tough love, written with love.

A sensitive subject, brilliantly and intelligently handled.

An excoriating book, Straight Jacket: How to be Gay and Happy delves into contemporary gay culture to address a plethora of issues gay people continue to face in 2016.

Insightful, inclusive, clever and engaging