Ulster Catharsis

About the Book

Ulster Catharsis is a cycle of poems telling the story of the author’s journey through manic depression, a descent into madness, and eventual redemption through a return home to his beloved Ulster. The book moves from an initial chapter ‘Innocence’, recounting the author’s idyllic childhood in rural County Antrim, through ‘Loss of Innocence’ and ‘Breakdown’, brought about by emigration and illness, to eventual ‘Innocence Regained’, where the author returns home to undergo a healing catharsis in Ulster.

Having undergone catharsis, the author is able, for the first time in many years, to think clearly on many issues, which are expressed in his ‘Thoughts from the Smoking Room’ and ‘Political Diversions’.

About the Author

Jeffrey Lamont was born in 1960, in the small seaside town of Ballycastle, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. From an early age Jeffrey showed a keen interest in literature, and poetry in particular. His ‘greats’ are fellow Ulsterman Seamus Heaney, Sean O’Casey, Yeats, and Samuel Beckett.

            Jeffrey was educated at the local University of Ulster, and went on to obtain MSc and MPhil degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Cranfield. Despite suffering from an early age from debilitating Manic Depression, Jeffrey was a successful academic at three universities, and achieved the position of Professor in 2002. For the past fifteen years he has successfully run an international consultancy business, and has worked in over twenty countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Former Soviet Union, the Balkans, the Middle East, China, and South East Asia. He is a keen linguist, and speaks Russian, German, and Mandarin Chinese.

            When not writing poetry, Jeffrey enjoys fly fishing and fine Cuban cigars. He now lives in County Antrim with his wife Aigul.