Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman is a short album.

11 songs. 36 minutes and 40 seconds. In 2003, Rolling Stone included it in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2007, the album was included in The Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. It has appeared in many other lists compiled by sages of the music industry.

And it is the last album my father ever heard.

On Oct 8, 2003, Michael John Hasler (I rarely say his name— it’s nice to type it here) died by suicide. He’d been listening to the CD, which was now still and quiet in the portable stereo close by.

This week’s Reading is a short essay by comedian and playwright Sadie Hasler on the death of her father a dozen years ago, which appears in the latest issue of The Lancet Psychiatry.

This piece discusses music, but also a life lost – and the impact on another life.

It is beautifully written and moving, so much so that it requires no further introduction.

Reading of the Week. Every week I pick a reading — often an article or a paper — from the world of Psychiatry.

36Min.pdf