The Caretakers

Title: The Caretakers

Author: Dariel Telfer

Year of publication: 1959, Corgi edition 1968

Back cover blurb: 'THIS IS A SHOCKING, POWERFUL, COURAGEOUS BOOK.  ONCE BEGUN, IT CANNOT BE PUT ASIDE.  ONCE READ, IT CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN.

   It is the story of men and women who live and work behind the locked doors and barred windows of a mental hospital.  It is a novel of people trapped in a world where emotions fester and tensions explode into murder and violence.  These are the strong and the weak...

   THEIR ACTIONS MAY SHOCK YOU, BUT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DISMISS THEM.

   Dariel Telfer wrote THE CARETAKERS out of first-hand knowledge and passionate concern.  She has herself worked in a large mental institution, been a witness to events such as those she so candidly describes.

   "Her obvious sincerity is more convincing than the slick platitudes of professionalism.  And her rough-drawn characters may well be more true to life because drawn from fact."

   FRANK G. SLAUGHTER, M.D.'

Quick flick reveals: Love-triangle soap opera plot.  And a mental hospital.

Random paragraph: '"God!" she said, hooding her eyes.  "Is this ever going to be a day.  The office is sending us six patients from Surgery and we have to transfer two to Untidy.  I tell you, I've been going around this morning like a cockroach in a bowl of chili."'


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