Patrick is a memoir that focuses on the author’s career, first working as a senior support worker in London’s homeless hostels, then as a filmmaker for humanitarian and healthcare organisations.

He shares his observations, thoughts, and feelings from working on the front line of disaster response across Europe, Africa, and Asia, and the emotional toll of working in those environments.

Shepherd describes periods of self-medication, therapy, and recovery, while also providing insight into some of the most pressing humanitarian crises of our time. The book also explores his neurodiversity and the impact it had on his childhood, schooling, and career.

P.D. Shepherd is a multimedia producer, painter, and author. He has worked extensively across Europe, Africa, and Asia, producing stories on themes such as health, agriculture, migration, conflict, neurodiversity, art, food, and travel.

P.D. Shepherd explains: “I started writing this book in my head when I was working in homeless hostels, nearly twenty years ago. I was seeing so much pain, trauma, and inequality. I thought people might be interested to read some of my observations and feelings about that time. I wondered if it would encourage people to engage more in issues like self-medication, mental health, and abuse. As I got into journalism and storytelling for healthcare agencies, I found myself seeing more suffering and disparity. I tried to write this book several times over the years, but I wasn’t conscious of how much my own life had become interwoven with the issues I was covering. I wasn’t ready to share my own experiences around self-medication, mental health, trauma, and neurodiversity.

It wasn’t until I started therapy that I opened up about these things. It was easy to write about them with honesty and conviction after that. I had become haunted by the things I witnessed and documented in my work. Things like childhood malnutrition, conflict, and people becoming severely ill from preventable diseases. I was also trying to bury unprocessed trauma from my experiences in childhood and adolescence. School felt like a cruel place for neurodiverse children in the 1980s and 90s. I needed to write this book so that I could document some of the things I had experienced, felt, and seen. It gave me the freedom to move on from my memories. After writing the book I felt less compelled to keep churning those memories around in my mind. I enjoyed writing it, and my head became lighter in the process. I hope people enjoy reading it, that it might help some people, and that it might engage others.”

RELEASE DATE: 28/04/2025 ISBN: 9781835741924 Price: £10.99