In another of the excellent 'Can I Tell You About... series, we meet Julie, a 38 year old wife and mother of two children, who has bouts of depression. We learn a lot about her family, her difficult father, her well-loved mother, her supportive husband (she calls him her 'rock'), her thirteen year old daughter, Helen, and 11 year old son, Andy. And we also learn she teaches history at a secondary school. All of these things are important in our understanding of how depression works for her and how her family and others help. The style of the writing, in the first person by Julie herself, is very attractive and accessible. She makes clear her feelings, her exhaustion, her guilt, and her inability to live or work normally whilst going through a spell of depression. She talks about ways doctors, therapists, and friends and family help and also how she manages to help herself, even through very small accomplishments. There is mention that true depression is not the same as other problems such as grief, and Julie herself is aware that the feelings she experienced after her mother's death were different from her depressive spells. Towards the end of Julie's story she talks about her children and the importance of their knowing that her depression has nothing to do with them or anything they have done. A long and important section at the end of the book, 'What is Depression?' gives short but excellent information about diagnosis, causes, effects, and treatments. There is also a lengthy list of organisations worldwide who can help. If you need to know about depression, this is your first and best port of call for adults and children alike. Available from Amazon, from good bookshops, and from the publisher: www.jkp.com