Nightmare scenarios

'Nightmare Scenarios began as an exercise in drawing.

I wanted to practise drawing people. One day I saw a man strap-hanging on the tube and thought he would be interesting to draw.

When I got home I drew what I remembered, invented a scenario that would explain his carefree demeanour, and the idea for a series of drawings was born: people depicted in mental-health crisis.

Next I drew a man wearing pyjamas outdoors, and based his scenario on a guy I had met 20 years earlier in a mental hospital.

Then I saw a TV program on body dysmorphia and drew a woman who was suffering from that as well as from agoraphobia.

Gradually I realised that these stories were all around me: on the radio, TV, in my memory and of course on the internet. And that if I drew enough of them I would have a book and what an achievement that would be.' Matt Barrell