New book makes it to top 10 for mental health and poetry
By William Smith
Douglas Cairns, a Scottish author, is celebrating the success of his auto-biographical account of more than three decades on the UK comedy circuit. ‘Mr. Elastic Brain - The Life and Poems of Sid Ozalid’ has made the top 10 on Amazon.
The book outlines many bizarre and outlandish scenarios which Ozaid experienced throughout his career. He may not have gone on to achieve universal fame but his behind the scenes account of his years as a struggling comic is poignant and intriguing.
During this time Ozalid provided support for such acts as Simple Minds, The Clash, The Specials and OMD, whilst, as Douglas Cairns, he held down a day job in the North Sea oil industry to support his family.
At the turn of the century, Douglas suffered mental health issues and stopped both writing and performing. Over a period of time and with the help of friends and colleagues he managed to get back to work and live a healthy active life.
He was encouraged to write and publish a book giving an insight to his interesting life on the ‘outside’ of the entertainment business. To do this Douglas had to overcome his lifelong challenge with dyslexia and decided that he would write about his experience with mental health.
Douglas told Mental Healthy 'The creative experience of producing the book and sharing it with others, was far more cleansing than I ever imagined. A lady wrote to me and said that after reading my book it gave her the confidence to start creating her own cartoons. She told me it stopped 'all the buzzing in her head'
This entertaining story of Ozalid’s life and his brushes with fame over a 30-year period, plus a collection of poems written and performed from 1977 to 2010 demonstrates one man's desire to find a space for his creativity. Some of the book’s best anecdotes include meeting actress and singer Clare Grogan while sharing a dressing room with lesbian lovers; running naked down Princes Street during the Edinburgh Fringe in 1982, appearing in the finals of the 1984 BBC Scotland ‘Stars in your Eyes’ talent show and playing football on TV with Scots legend Denis Law.
In its first three weeks of release Mr. Elastic Brain went straight into the Amazon top ten listing for both Poetry and Mental Health. All proceeds from the sale of the book are going to mental health charityMIND.
'I was not just humbled by the book going straight into the best sellers list for the first few weeks, I was completely overwhelmed by people I did not know contacting me and saying how impactful the book had been for them, not just that it was fun to read, but how I had connected with them by being open about my own experience of dealing with my mental health issues.' Douglas told us.
