Mike Amesbury

Moments of Madness

From the Green Benches of the Commons to Prison and Beyond

Moments of Madness is an unflinching memoir of power, collapse and recovery. It charts a journey towards the green benches of the House of Commons to a brief spell in prison, time in a psychiatric hospital, and the long aftermath of probation, public shame and reckoning. When political life falls away, the author is forced to confront not only consequences, but a deep and long standing battle with mental health.

Blending political insight at the highest levels with intimate reflection, the book examines masculinity, class and vulnerability, asking what boys and men are taught to suppress and at what cost. Alongside moments of disorientation and despair are unexpected acts of kindness that quietly shape a different future.

This is not a story of easy redemption or image repair. It is a clear-eyed account of responsibility, illness and change, and of a slower, more grounded form of redemption rooted in honesty, care and living differently afterwards.