Download or read book A Secret Madness written by Elaine Bass and published by Profile Books(GB). This book was released on 2006 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In post-war London two girls are relieved to find husbands. One lands the 1950s dream of wealth and security. The other, Elaine, endures 14 years married to a man with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. At first Elaine finds Gerald's activities curious but manageable. But he grows increasingly withdrawn, his mania grows and his actions obscure, and he even becomes violent. The birth of their daughter heralds a complete breakdown and 5 years of silence, fear, and despair. With startling honesty and great eloquence, Bass describes their poverty, her loneliness, fears for her child, finding comfort in an affair with the village doctor, and how the marriage finally ended.