There is a deluge of written information for users and carers being produced about schizophrenia, which shows no sign of abating, so this article makes no attempt to be comprehensive. It would be out-of-date by the time of publication and would inevitably miss leaflets cherished by individual psychiatrists, mental health workers, users and carers. However, remarkably few up-to-date books exist and this issue will be discussed later in the article.