This pair of highly affecting books work on two levels: primarily autobiography, they are also valuable windows onto Irish social history. Bird's Nest Soup chronicles Hanna Greally's almost 20 years as an involuntary patient in St Loman's psychiatric hospital near Mullingar. She was 19 when admitted in the early 1940s, and was not released until 1962.Why she was there is never clear. Her ''breakdown'' is mentioned and she is told she needs ''a rest'', but no more. The nurses - some of whom seem like gaolers - do not discuss her ''illness'', and doctors rarely call. Insulin, shock therapy and electro-convulsive therapy are administered, yet without any indication of the ''symptoms'' targeted or the ''benefit'' envisaged: certainly none materialises.Hanna's hospitalisation is incarceration. However well she may be, she cannot leave unless officially ''claimed''. Only her mother visits her, but she falls ill and dies. The rest of Hanna's family abandon her. She's fit to go yet cannot.However, laws and practices change, and a new psychiatric superintendent, with more humanity, arrives. He offers Hanna the opportunity to transfer to Coolamber Manor in Co. Longford, a rehabilitation school for young women. Here she can learn a trade and re-enter the world.Bird's Nest Soup, the first part of Hanna's story was given to the world back in 1971, a small landmark in the then reviving Irish publishing industry. It was later reissued by the present publishers, who have now brought out her second book, the story of what happened afterwards.The first section of Flown the Nest recounts the year Hanna spent at Coolamber. It was happy, liberating, helpful. She got on well with the other girls, with the teachers, and most of all with the lady President, whose kindness, thoughtfulness and leadership make you weep for joy. Hanna studied various occupations, and decided to become a housekeeper/cook.Part Two follows Hanna's pilgrimage beyond Coolamber. She travels to England and works for various families and people, even a monastery. She has many lovely stories to tell, but by far the most beautiful has to do with Dr Joseph OBE.Hanna served Dr Joseph as housekeeper/cook for six years with diligence, as was her wont. Over time she developed deep love for him, as only woman can love man, and tended him right up to his death, an emotional resurrection for her.The St Loman's of Bird's Nest Soup is with us even today. Dr Pat Devitt, Inspector of Mental Services, has used expressions like ''unfit for human habitation'' and ''dilapidated, desolate and depressing'' when describing it to The Irish Times. He spoke in similar terms of St Ita's and St Brendan's in Dublin. There is plainly still much, much room for improvement despite political promises again and again that psychiatry in Ireland will be modernised.Yet for every St Loman's, there is a Coolamber, where the afflicted are not wastefully, perpetually imprisoned, but are equipped - compassionately - to contribute to society and so find fulfillment.Resolve and courage shine through these books. A woman of Christian faith, hope and grit, Hanna makes the very best of very unfavourable circumstances. Eventually she discovers love for another human being. Six years appears paltry but such love constitutes the greatest achievement of any life. In that sense, Hanna Greally is a heroine.

The first thing that strikes the reader about Flown the Nest is the absolute change of tone from her previous book (Bird's Nest Soup). She died in 1987, having made a valuable contribution to a little-known but important aspect of our social history.