Lindy left her office job in London after being shoved from a moving train. Unable to keep a local job due to a skill deficit, her husband suggests she train as a psychiatric nurse. It feels like a desperate effort to keep the bailiffs at bay.

This memoir of her training and career unfolds through her personal experiences and significant historical events as English politicians are determined to close the Victorian lunatic asylums.

Eventually the family moves to New Zealand during the worst storm since 1703, drawn by her husband's job, which isn't exactly as promised. While there are humorous moments, they also face challenging situations and ultimately - tragedy.

'Desperate Times unfolds like a series of disorientating moving images. I began reading it, full of doubt and confusion, until I realised that was entirely the author’s intention. Within a short time, I was swept up in the scenario, bowling along at a breakneck pace. (Almost literally! From the beginning and as the story evolved, the narrator suffered many life-threatening physical injuries, often in the line of duty.)

The setting for this ethnographic narrative moves through the 1980s British health system, particularly nursing in mental health, and in the final chapters, migrates to the New Zealand health system in 1987, concluding in 1996. It provides insights into nursing practices and institutional provisions, attitudes and beliefs on opposite sides of the world, that only an insider could recount.

The author’s wry turn of phrase and gallows humour propel the momentum and bring a lift to what could otherwise be a bleak catalogue of disasters.

Authentic in every way, the narrative is pure human experience. No other living person, let alone a machine, could have written an ethnographic account that captures time and place so vividly. Desperate Times informs our understanding of what has gone before and the lessons that must surely be learnt if we are to create a better future for our most vulnerable citizens and for those who put their own lives at risk to care for them.

Amid the mountains of books written to a commercial formula Desperate Times is refreshingly raw, real and unique.

I await with great interest the opportunity to follow the continuing story as further publications from Lindy Kato come to fruition.'

- Patricia Fenton

'I think your manuscript is very important and you have handled the subject with courage and authority.

As a reader, I found it to be enthralling, especially the scenes in the various wards you worked in. It is a contentious subject and you give a unique insider’s view of the issues at hand. Previous accounts I have read have all been from the point of view of patients or objective studies that protect the status quo. You have exposed the absurdity, criminality and neglect the reality.

From a technical point of view, your manuscript is fluently and consistently well-written with a unique voice that reveals your own humour and intelligence as well as your commitment to the issues at hand. Your wry humour helps to deflect from the horrors you describe. The best piece of advice about writing I ever heard came from Irish writer Kevin Barry who says that is you are describing a tragedy you must contrast with humour and vice versa. It is the balance of this tone that works so well in your observations. Yet I always felt the political outrage at what you were witnessing and your attempts to negotiate a broken system with humanity and compassion.

I also really enjoyed your research – the extended explanations of the situations you encountered - that further illuminated the absurdity and horror of these evolving medical practices. Yes it did bring back terrible memories but I was glad for your courage. A few years ago I wrote about my son’s experiences only to be shut down by mental health practitioners who dismissed me as a fantasist. They cannot do that with you! And yet the absolute irony of the narrative is when you yourself become a victim of the system.

As someone who experienced England during this period I think you have vividly captured the authentic experience of life at street level and the endless frustrations and adjustments one has to make just in every day survival. I especially liked your detailed accounts of your various motorbikes and cars and their inevitable failings. Along with the descriptions of the dingy apartments and houses and the way that your neighbours lives kept intruding on yours, whether invited or not.

I believe this is an important story to tell and it is eminently publishable.

But to sum up – bravo!! I read a lot and this is the most important thing I have read in ages and arguably the most well written. The subject is compelling and disturbing and so relevant. Your narrative voice and character comes through clearly. I never felt I was not in good hands. It ended abruptly for me but is that the end? You have the authority by then to suggest solutions – to review what you have learned.'

- Susy Pointon