Authors Electric

"Pet Therapy" - as approved by Dr Moreira Pinned to my mother's sitting room wall is a small and slightly worn piece of paper. It's headed Dr Moreira's Good Advice. Dr Moreira's title is Speciality Doctor Later Life Care Community Psychiatry and I hope she realises how invaluable she has been in helping my mother (and me) through periods of particular distress. My mother has both Alzheimer's and vascular dementia and there have been moments when I have feared that medication might be necessary. Dr Moreira asked us questions, listened to the answers and offered preliminary advice. This was the list I jotted down later: Drink water frequently Eat as healthily as you can Take exercise but don't get over-tired Avoid disorientation Have some fun Don't get ill I remember thinking that the last one must be some sort of doctorly joke. Illness is something that just happens: you get it cured and carry on. People with dementia,...

I am one of many people currently reading The Reason I Jump: one boy's voice from the silence of autism by Naoki Higashida, translated by novelist David Mitchell and his wife Keiko Yoshida. It's a unique and beautiful piece of writing from a severely autistic thirteen year old who still (he's now aged sixteen) cannot reliably control his body or hold a spoken conversation. David Mitchell wrote an article in the Guardian   explaining his personal involvement (his son is autistic) and the book was also read on Radio 4. When I mention it to friends they say, “oh yes, I think I heard that” or “I know the one you mean”. The hardback edition stands at #2 in the Amazon top 100 books and is reprinting: the kindle edition is unobtrusively available at #103. I am already thinking of friends to whom I want to give The Reason I Jump . Not because they are parents or teachers of autistic children but because it speaks about the imperfect relationship between body and mind and the i...