Clinical psychologist Tanya Byron is well known as a columnist, television personality and adviser on mental health issues in the UK. While she has been a psychologist for over 20 years, The Skeleton Cupboard focuses on her post-graduate training and explores her early development as a professional.

The reader follows Byron’s professional growth through her work with six clients. However, she explains that these stories are entirely fictional – confidentiality requires that she not disclose actual cases. Instead, she has combined elements from a multitude of patients she has treated over the years. While this is understandable, it left me questioning the authenticity of the memoir overall.

Byron is very open about her development as a fledgling psychologist. In her introduction she hypothesises about the dramatic moment she believes led to her career choice: ‘I first became fascinated by the frontal lobes of the human brain when I saw my grandmother’s sprayed across the skirting boards of the front room of her dark and cluttered house. I was 15.’ Byron refers frequently to the impact of her grandmother’s murder. She believes the calm rationality that overtook her that day is the same skill that has benefited her psychology practice. She is also challenged in her final placement, which sees her working with substance abusers – her grandmother’s murderer was a drug-affected ex-tenant.

The clients Byron writes about are diverse: a bereaved, anorexic 12-year-old in a residential psychiatric unit; a high-profile fashion designer coming to terms with his AIDS diagnosis; a Holocaust survivor battling dementia after nursing his wife through the same decline. Byron describes her self-doubt as a young woman working with much older clients and serious problems. Rewardingly, she also reveals both her mistakes and the satisfying ‘aha’ moments as she grows in knowledge and confidence.

Annie Condon