Bruce Venter was born in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1951. Educated in South Africa, he went on to study dentistry at the University of the Witwatersrand. After a year of compulsory military service working in the Medical corps in Simonstown, he entered private practice in South Africa. In the late 1970s, at the age of 27, he was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. This is the remarkable story of his life, of how he dealt with the illness and, despite the dire predictions of the psychiatrists who treated him, recovered to become rehabilitated as a fully functioning member of the community. He emigrated from South Africa in 1999 to live in the United Kingdom where he registered as a dentist, pursuing a special interest in orthodontics, until his retirement. He now lives in Eastleigh, Hampshire, where he spends his time writing and studying music.
