The maddest place on Earth

Traces: Congratulations on the award. What made you decide to write the book?

Jill Giese: Thank you. The award caps off an engrossing research and writing journey, full of surprises. For starters, I was astonished to learn that colonial Victoria officially had the world’s highest rate of insanity and was declared ‘the maddest place in the world’ at an 1880s royal commission. Equally intriguing were the earnest efforts to cure insanity with an enlightened treatment regime at the asylums. When I stumbled on an 1876 eyewitness account of daily life in Melbourne’s asylums, written from the inside by a mysterious undercover journalist, I was hooked. This wasn’t dark, stodgy history I’d unearthed; it was a rich social drama that I wanted to bring to life.