My name is Henry Wright and 'Myself am Hell' is my first novel. It has been a labour of love completed over the course of the last nine years. I have worked in
My name is Henry Wright and 'Myself am Hell' is my first novel. It has been a labour of love completed over the course of the last nine years. I have worked in various third sector and local authority roles during my working life, but I realised long ago that writing is my passion and vocation. I studied English Literature at the University of Leeds, where I developed a love for the works of Milton and Joyce that only deepens with the years. While studying for my BA I began to experience what I later realised were the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. I experienced troubling intrusive thoughts along with the accompanying urge to perform compulsions in order to get some relief from the thoughts. The condition resulted in my hospitalisation in 2003. I was able to graduate in 2005 and then studied for a Masters in Renaissance and Romantic Period Literature at the University of Liverpool, again interrupted by OCD and depression, and completed in 2008. I began this novel in 2014 and published it in 2023. It is my way of expressing and reconciling the role that OCD has played in my life through literary fiction. OCD was also a jumping off point for the sub-plots in the book exploring Afghanistan under the Taliban and Tokyo in the 70s and the influence of the yakuza. I am married and I live in Kent with my wife and our two cats.